Australian lawmakers on Thursday approved landmark rules banning under-16s from social media, adopting one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on popular sites like Facebook, Instagram and X.
The bill has now been passed by both houses of parliament with bipartisan support, and social media companies are expected to soon take “reasonable steps” to prevent young teens from having accounts.
Companies – facing fines of up to US$50 million ($32.5 million) for non-compliance – they have described the laws as “fuzzy”, “problematic” and “hurried”.
The legislation was approved by the lower house of Parliament on Wednesday and passed by the Senate late Thursday. Today, it is certain that it will become law.
Centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, facing an election early next year, has passionately defended the new rules and rallied Australian parents to get behind him.
In the wake of the vote, he painted social media as “a platform for peer pressure, a driver of anxiety, a vehicle for fraudsters and, worst of all, a tool for online predators.”
He said he wanted young Australians to “get off the phone and into the football and cricket field, the tennis and netball courts, the pool”.
“I’ll find a way”
But young Australians like 12-year-old Angus Lydom aren’t surprised.
“I would like to continue using it. And it will be a strange feeling not to have it and to be able to talk to all my friends at home,” he told AFP.
It is likely that many will try to find ways around it.
“I will find a way. And all my other friends too,” said Lydom.
Similarly, 11-year-old Elsie Arkinstall said there was still a place for social media, especially for kids who want to watch baking or art tutorials, many of which appear on social media.
“Children and teenagers should be able to explore these techniques because you can’t learn all these things from books,” he added.
On paper, the ban is one of the strictest in the world.
But the current legislation offers almost no detail on how the rules will be enforced, and has raised concerns among experts that it will be little more than an unenforceable token piece of legislation.
It will be at least 12 months before regulators work out the details and the ban takes effect.
Exemptions are likely to be granted to some companies, such as WhatsApp and YouTube, which teenagers may need to use for entertainment, school work or other reasons.
Late amendments included the provision that a government-issued digital ID cannot be used as a means of age verification.
Australia is the way
Social media expert Susan Grantham told AFP that digital literacy programs that teach children to think “critically” about what they see online should be adopted, similar to the model used in Finland.
The legislation will be closely monitored by other countries, with many considering whether to introduce similar bans.
Lawmakers from Spain to Florida have proposed social media bans for young teens, though none of the measures have yet been enacted.
China has restricted access to minors since 2021, and children under the age of 14 cannot spend more than 40 minutes a day on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Children’s online play time is also limited in China.
