Australia Rejects Elon Musk Claim About Social Media Ban For Under-16s

Elon Musk and the Australian government have clashed once again – this time over that country’s introduction this week of a bill to ban social media for under-16 year olds.

Earlier this month Australian government had confirmed what it called “world leading legislation” to tackle the use of social media by children and young teenagers.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the time said the new legislation would be similar to other laws such as restricting alcohol sales to those over 18 years.

Musk allegation

At the moment, Facebook, Instagram, Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok stipulates that children have to be at least 13 years old to use their platforms.

On Thursday the Australian government followed through and introduced in Parliament legislation that would fine platforms (including Elon Musk’s X) up to 150 million Australian dollars ($133 million) if they allow children under age 16 to hold social media accounts.

Predictably, this drew a response from “free speech” advocate Elon Musk, after he tweeted “Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.”

Government response

But the Australian government flatly rejected Elon Musk’s allegation.

Australia Treasurer Jim Chalmers was quoted by the Associated Press as saying that Musk’s criticism was “unsurprising”.

Asked if that was the government’s intention, Chalmers replied, “Of course not.”

“Elon Musk having that view about protecting kids online is entirely unsurprising to us. He’s expressed similar views before,” Chalmers said.

“The idea that Elon Musk is not delighted with our steps to try and protect kids online is not an especially big surprise to us, nor does it trouble us greatly,” Chalmers told reporters.

“Our job is not to come up with a social media policy to please Elon Musk. Our job is to put in place the necessary protection for kids online,” Chalmers added.

Tough legislation

Parliament could pass the tough legislation as soon as next week, which would oblige X, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit and Instagram to ban young children from their platforms.

The legislation will be debated by lawmakers in Parliament on Monday.

It should be noted that Australia’s states and territories unanimously support the government’s social media ban for young people aged under 16.

The main opposition party in Australia also expressed its support for the law, meaning it is likely to pass the Senate.

It would take effect 12 months after passing into law, giving social media firms time to implement solutions.

Australia is not the only country looking at enacting legislation to protect children and youngsters from social media.

Earlier this week the British technology secretary Peter Kyle admitted that United Kingdom may be about to follow the lead of Australia, when he told the BBC that a possible ban on social media for under-16s in the UK is “on the table”.

Musk and Australia

Elon Musk and the Australian government have publicly clashed before.

In September Musk called the Australian government “fascists” over a proposed law aimed at reining in misinformation on social media platforms such as X.

The country’s Labor government said the law would enable fines of up to 5 percent of a company’s global turnover for enabling misinformation.

Earlier this year Elon Musk was publicly rebuked by the Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, after Musk had accused Australia of censorship after an Australian judge had ordered X (as well as Meta Platforms) to block users worldwide from accessing video of a bishop being stabbed in a Sydney church.

Musk at the time tweeted from his personal account that “the Australian censorship commissar is demanding *global* content bans!”

But Prime Minister Albanese berated Musk in several television interviews, describing Musk as an “arrogant billionaire” who considered himself above the law and was out of touch with the public.

Australia’s eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who had ordered the removal of material from social media platforms, received death threats after Musk’s intervention.

Julie Inman Grant said the legal battle led to online attacks against her and her family, including the release online of personal information without her permission, known as doxxing.

She said Musk had “issued a dog whistle to 181 million users around the globe” which resulted in her receiving death threats.

The stabbing video on X had been geoblocked from Australia, but was available elsewhere.

A lawyer for the Australian government accused X of overruling Australian law by refusing to remove the violent content.

But the country dropped its legal challenge in June after a legal setback in that country’s federal court.