Australian states back national plan to ban children under 16 from social media

Australias states and territories on Friday unanimously backed a national plan to require most forms of social media to bar children younger than 16Leaders of the eight provinces held a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to discuss what he calls a worldfirst national approach that would make platforms including X TikTok Instagram and Facebook responsible for enforcing the age limitWere making 16 years old the minimum age for social media Heres why pictwittercomevjttbTjUBmdash Anthony Albanese AlboMP November 8 2024Social media is doing social harm to our young Australians Albanese told reporters The safety and mental health of our young people has to be a priorityThe government leaders had been discussing for months setting a limit considering options from 14 to 16 years of ageWhile Tasmania would have preferred 14 the state was prepared to support 16 in the interests of achieving national uniformity Albanese saidThe legislation will be introduced into Parliament within two weeks and the age ban would take effect a year after it passes into law giving platforms time to work out how to exclude children The government has yet to offer a technical solutionThe delay is also intended to allow time to address privacy concerns around age verificationThe main opposition party has given inprinciple support to the 16year age limit since it was announced on Thursday suggesting the legislation will pass the SenateThe minor Greens party was critical saying the ban would prevent the emergence in Australia of future child environmental activists like Swedens Greta ThunbergMore than 140 academics with expertise in fields related to technology and child welfare signed an open letter to Albanese last month opposing a social media age limit as too blunt an instrument to address risks effectivelyCritics say most teenagers are tech savvy enough to get around such laws Some fear the ban will create conflicts within families and drive social media problems undergroundMeta which owns Facebook and Instagram argues that stronger tools in app stores and operating systems for parents to control what apps their children can use would be a simple and effective solutionThe government likens the proposed social media age limit to the laws that restrict the sale of alcohol to adults aged 18 and older across Australia Children still find ways to drink but the prohibition remainsWe think these laws will make a real positive difference Albanese saidBut Lisa Given professor of information sciences at RMIT University described the legislation as really problematicMany of our social networks are actually about the provision of extremely critical information to kids Given told Australian Broadcasting CorpTheres no doubt that theyre also facing bullying and other challenges online but they actually need the social supports to know how to navigate the platforms safely and so they need more support from parents from caregivers not less access to a single or multiple platforms Given addedCommunications Minister Michelle Rowland said children would retain access to online education and health servicesThe legislation would also include strong privacy protections surrounding age verificationPrivacy must be paramount including that of children Rowland said We should also be very clear about the realities These platforms know about their users in a way that no one else doesRowland said YouTube would likely be included among the mainstream platforms defined under the legislation as age restricted servicesBut YouTube Kids could be exempted Gaming and messaging services would not face age restrictions she saidThis legislation would strike a balance between minimizing the harms experienced by young people during a critical period of their development while also supporting their access to benefits as well Rowland saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever