Australia does not allow social media for under 16s

Social media companies must clean up their act: The Age of Digital Rights in Australia is a Question of Olympian Albanese, Musk, and Shoebridge

The new law is scheduled to come into effect in 12 months, giving social media companies time to meet the requirements. These include taking “reasonable steps to prevent children who have not reached a minimum age from having accounts.” Children will not face punishment or be reprimanded, but the responsibility for violating these upcoming restrictions lies with platform providers.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement that they want children in Australia to have a childhood and parents to know the government is in their corner. “We know some kids will find workarounds, but we’re sending a message to social media companies to clean up their act.”

The Prime Minister says that the rules are expected to apply to the likes ofFacebook,Instagram,Snapchat, and TikTok. Messaging apps like Facebook are exempt, as are sites used for education.

The legislation doesn’t specify how tech companies will enforce the new age restrictions, but those that fail to do so would face fines of up to $50 million AUS (about $32.4 million US). The law does not require users to upload government IDs as part of the verification process.

Meta criticized the bill when it was introduced in the Australian parliament last week, calling it “inconsistent and ineffective.” The company urged the Australian government to delay passing the legislation, saying there were unclear steps that needed to be taken for impacted platforms to enforce it. X owner Elon Musk has also slammed the law, alleging that it seems like “a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.”

The law will make platforms liable for fines if they fail to prevent children under the age of 16 from holding accounts.

The amendments bolster privacy protections. Platforms would not be able to make users provide identity documents such as passports or driver’s licenses, nor could they demand digital identification from them.

The legislation demands that social media companies take reasonable steps to identify and remove users who are under the age of 18.

Sen. David Shoebridge, from the minority Greens party, said mental health experts agreed that the ban could dangerously isolate many children who used social media to find support.

The policy will hurt vulnerable young people the most, especially in regional communities and the LGBTQI community, according to Shoebridge.

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“This is a responsibility these companies should have been fulfilling long ago, but for too long they have shirked these responsibilities in favor of profit,” she added.

Online safety campaigner Sonya Ryan, whose 15-year-old daughter Carly was murdered by a 50-year-old pedophile who pretended to be a teenager online, described the Senate vote as a “monumental moment in protecting our children from horrendous harms online.”

“It’s too late for my daughter, Carly, and the many other children who have suffered terribly and those who have lost their lives in Australia, but let us stand together on their behalf and embrace this together,” she told the AP in an email.

Wayne Holdsworth, whose teenage son Mac took his own life after falling victim to an online sextortion scam, had advocated for the age restriction and took pride in its passage.

“I have always been a proud Australian, but for me subsequent to today’s Senate decision, I am bursting with pride,” Holdsworth told the AP in an email.

Christopher Stone, executive director of Suicide Prevention Australia, the governing body for the suicide prevention sector, said the legislation failed to consider positive aspects of social media in supporting young people’s mental health and sense of connection.

“The government is running blindfolded into a brick wall by rushing this legislation. Young Australians deserve evidence-based policies, not decisions made in haste,” Stone said in a statement.

The platforms had complained that the law would be unworkable, and had urged the Senate to delay the vote until at least June next year when a government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies made its report on how young children could be excluded.

Criticisms include that the legislation was rushed through Parliament without adequate scrutiny, is ineffective, poses privacy risks for all users, and undermines the authority of parents to make decisions for their children.