Amidst unending murmurs, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has finally come forth and announced that the country would move towards banning social media for children under 16 years of age. This comes after the government’s assertion that social media platforms aren’t doing enough on their own to protect children.
Legislation to prevent children from accessing social media will be introduced in Australia’s parliament before the end of the year and is expected to take effect 12 months after its ratification. It’s worth noting that the proposal has already received broad bipartisan support in the Australian parliament.
Meta’s Facebook, Threads, and Instagram are expected to take the biggest blow due to this decision, and the same goes for Bytedance’s TikTok. A ban on social media could also mean that X (formerly Twitter) will be out of reach of children under 16, along with YouTube, which has a massive audience of kids.
“This one is for the mums and dads. Social media is doing real harm to kids, and I’m calling time on it,” Albanese said to reporters. “The onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access. The onus won’t be on parents or young people,” he added.
Measures by social media platforms
Social media platforms have been under pressure to implement child safety measures for a long time. However, features like age verification, enhanced privacy settings, content moderation, and screen time limits have been seen as mere tokenism rather than concrete steps. Besides, the recommendation algorithms of these platforms are constantly under fire for amplifying sensational or harmful content to maximize user engagement, potentially impacting mental health and spreading misinformation.
In September of this year, Meta introduced Instagram’s Teen accounts to create a safer environment for teens. Under this new introduction, the accounts of all children under 16 are converted into Teen accounts by default, and limitations are applied that can only be overturned by their parents.
Will other nations follow?
Conversations about bans on social media have been swirling around in a number of countries over the past few years. Last year, France proposed a ban on social media for those under 15, though users were able to avoid these bans with parental consent.
In the US, recent legislative proposals have suggested a nationwide age limit, while even the UK is considering regulations that would require social media companies to verify user ages and prioritise age-appropriate content. Amidst all this, no proposals of this sort have been suggested for India.