Australian Senate Passes Social Media Ban For Under-16s

Australia will soon become the first country in the world to enact a law that bans social media for children under-16 years of age.

The Associated Press reported that the social media ban for children under-16 has passed the Australian Senate on Thursday, with 34 votes for (19 against), and therefore the bill will soon become a world-first law.

It comes after the Australian Parliament (the House of Representatives), on Wednesday had overwhelmingly passed the bill, with 102 votes versus 13 against.

Social media ban

This approval was unsurprising, given Australia’s states and territories had unanimously supported the ban, as did the main opposition party in Australia.

Earlier this month the Australian government had announced the “world leading legislation” to tackle the use of social media by children and young teenagers, despite the vocal opposition from the likes of Elon Musk, as well as an advocate for social media platforms.

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.

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.

When the law is passed, social media platforms will be liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33m or £26m) for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.

The platforms will have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

Age verification?

Social media platforms had asked for the vote to be delayed until at least June next year when a government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies makes its report on how the ban could be enforced.

And it should be noted that Australia’s House of Representatives has yet to endorse opposition amendments made in the Senate.

But that is a formality since the government has already agreed they will pass. The House is scheduled to pass the amendments on Friday.

According to the AP, the amendments bolster privacy protections.

Social media platforms for example would not be allowed to compel users to provide government-issued identity documents including passports or driver’s licenses, nor could they demand digital identification through a government system.

This prompts questions about how tech platforms can carry out appropriate age verification, to ensure that its users are over 16, given that some youngsters have publicly admitted to lying when asked by tech platforms about their age.

UK to follow?

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

Last 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 was “on the table”.

However Kyle later backed down and admitted similar legislation was “not on the cards” for now.