- Australia plans to ban social media for users under 16, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said.
- The ban comes amid a global effort to curb children’s use of social media.
- Some say Australia’s ban is too broad, it could limit access to mental health services.
With young people using social media more than ever, and those social media companies implementing algorithms that keep them engaged, concerns about media addiction are growing. sprouting all over the world. Now, Australia wants to ban social media for everyone under 16.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the plan on Thursday. Australia’s social media ban will be tabled in Parliament during its final session this year, which begins on November 18. If passed, social media companies will have 12 months to find a way to prevent children from their programs before the law is implemented. .
“This is for moms and dads,” Albanese said at a press conference. “Social media is ruining our kids, and I’m calling time on it.”
Albanese told reporters that the proposed law would “put the onus” on social media companies to demonstrate that they are taking reasonable steps to keep children out of their apps, not on parents.
“There will be no penalties for users,” he said.
The Australian announcement comes after a multi-state lawsuit in the United States seeks to hold TikTok accountable for using “addictive” tactics aimed at children and teenagers.
In October, attorneys general from 14 different countries filed lawsuits against TikTok. They said the app is addictive and profitable to destroy children’s mental health.
Internal TikTok documents from a lawsuit filed in Kentucky showed that TikTok employees decided that new users could become addicted to the app after watching 260 videos. Because most TikTok videos are about 8 seconds long, Kentucky officials estimated that a child could become addicted after just 35 minutes of using the app, the document says.
Meanwhile, in the UK, lawmakers introduced a bill in October that would require social media companies to exclude children under 16 from algorithms that harvest their data . The law is intended to make it harder for companies to push addictive content to children, according to The Guardian.
In Australia, Albanese said that social media has permeated every aspect of life, which led him to believe that the ban on underage users was “the right thing to do.” complete.”
About 97% of young people use social media across various platforms in Australia, according to Reuters.
“This could be the first contact outside the school gate, apart from tennis, cricket, football, netball, swimming – when parents get together, it’s very worrying,” said Albanese.
Albanese called this law “leading in the world,” but other experts opposes the ban, calling it too broad. More than 140 experts those from Australia and other countries have signed an open letter in opposition law, says the ban does not do enough to address children who need access to essential services through social media, among other problems.
Jackie Hallan, director of ReachOut, a youth mental health service, told the Associated Press that she also opposes the ban. According to Hallan, 73% of young Australians in need of mental health services find it through social media.
“We’re not comfortable with the ban,” Hallan told the agency. “We think that young people can avoid the ban and our concern is that it actually drives behavior underground, and if things go wrong, young people are less likely to get support from parents and carers because they are worried about getting into trouble.”
Meta’s head of safety, Antigone Davis, told The Associated Press that the company will respect any age limits the Australian government wants to introduce.
“However, what is missing is a serious discussion of how we put security in place, otherwise we risk feeling better, as we have taken action, but young people and parents will not put themselves in a better place,” Davis said in a statement.
Davis added that stronger parental control tools in app stores and apps would be a “simple and effective solution” to prevent kids from downloading unwanted apps.