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The proposed ban includes those already on the platforms and those with parental consent.
The Australia government has proposed 16 as the minimum age for minors to use social media and lays the onus on platforms to demonstrate reasonable actions to prevent any younger users. However, the government did not explain how it expects platforms to enforce the age limits.
In a statement to the press today (7 November), Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese said that the government’s proposed minimum age legislation will be introduced when the country’s parliament returns in two weeks, and if passed, will come into force a year later.
Albanese said he has spoken to “thousands” of parents and guardians who were “worried sick” about the safety of children online.
“I want parents to be able to say, ‘sorry mate, it’s against the law for me to get you to do this’,” he said.
The proposed new legislation enforces a blanket ban on everyone under 16 from using social media, including those already on it and those with parental consent.
“The fact is that social media has a social responsibility, but the platforms are falling short,” said the Australian minister for communications, Michelle Rowland.
“What we are announcing here and what we will legislate will be truly world leading,”
Rowland said that the platforms that do not comply will face penalties under the proposed Act – which under current legislation are less than A$1m.
The government is currently undertaking an “age assurance trial” – intended to evaluate technology capable of determining a person’s age – and are hoping to put measures in place to ensure social media platforms comply with the ban.
Some social media platforms already have policies banning anyone under the age of 13 from joining with their own account, but these policies are difficult to enforce.
Australia is known to take a tough stance against social media giants.
Dr Eileen Culloty, the deputy director of Dublin City University’s Institute for Media, Democracy and Society, told SiliconRepublic.com that the country is “one of the first” to have a “well-resourced” child safety commissioner who rejected the idea that social media platforms cannot do much about harassment on the apps.
Last year, Australia slapped X with a A$610,500 fine for failing to tackle child sexual abuse material on the platform.
While in 2021, Australia passed the News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, which was designed to make large platforms pay local news publishers to feature their content – legislation that initially received backlash, but platforms such as Google later complied.
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