by Mick the Ram

Australia’s government will table a controversial proposal in parliament where the country will introduce what would be “world-leading” legislation to ban children under 16 from social media.

The legislation will be introduced during parliament’s final two weeks in session of 2024 which begins on 18 November.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the proposed laws were aimed at mitigating the “harm” social media was inflicting on Australian children.

He clarified that while many of the details are yet to be debated, the ban would not apply to young people who are already on social media.

He also maintained that there would be no exemptions on the age limit, even if the child’s parents give their consent, instead he said the onus would fall on the platforms themselves to show they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access.

Albanese said there would be no penalties for users, and that it would be up to Australia’s online regulator – the eSafety Commissioner – to enforce the laws.

If passed the new legislation would come into force after 12 months and would be subject to a review after it’s in place.

Past efforts have failed

There have been previous attempts at restricting access, but they have all failed and received fierce backlash from the tech companies.

Also the question will still remain over how implementation would work, given that there are tools which can circumvent age-verification requirements.

One for the parents

Nevertheless, Mr Albanese was insistent. In a strong and passionate address, he said: “Social media is doing harm to our kids and I’m calling time on it.”

Then justifying his approach he made the point: “This one is for the mums and dads, as they, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online. I want Australian families to know that the government has your back.”

Mental health concerns

He highlighted how on his own systems he gets regular pop-ups that he would prefer not to see and therefore the thought of a vulnerable 14-year-old seeing the same sort of material, was sickening.

Of particular concern was the effect on the children’s mental health and he referenced the potential harmful body image content that influences young girls and misogynistic material directed towards young boys.

“These tech companies are incredibly powerful and their apps have algorithms that drive people towards certain behaviours. I’ve spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles and they like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online.”

Experts split

The majority of leading experts in the field agree that social media platforms can cause significant harm to the mental health of adolescents, but many are split over trying to outlaw them all together.

Many put forward the argument that bans only delay young people’s exposure to the potentially dangerous apps, where a better approach would be to teach them how to skilfully navigate complex online spaces.

Platform head has counter suggestion

If the legislation were to get through then social media platforms would be penalised for breaching the age limit, but underage children and their parents would not.

Both X and TikTok declined to comment on the proposal, but head of safety at Meta Antigone Davis, the company behind Facebook and Instagram, said its platforms would respect any age limitations the government wants to introduce.

She was however, keen to make the point that deeper discussions would be required to thrash out how exactly the protections would be implemented. Otherwise she said: “we risk making ourselves feel better like we have taken action, but teens and parents will not find themselves in a better place.”

A simpler and more effective solution she suggested would be to introduce stronger tools in app stores and operating systems for parents to control what apps their children can use.

Going underground?

A possible outcome that would need to be taken into account was raised by child psychologist Philip Tam, who noted a clear and obvious danger.

“My real fear honestly is that the problem of social media will simply be driven underground” he said, highlighting that would actually make the issue even worse.

His recommendation was a lower age limit: “a minimum age of 12 or 13 would have been more enforceable” was his suggestion.

Either way, it promises to be an interesting couple of weeks in parliament with some strong points of view being aired on the subject.