Australia to become first country to ban social media for kids

Australia is set to become the first nation to introduce an outright ban on social media for under-16s.

Political leaders across the country have unanimously backed the plan, which would apply to social media platforms such as X, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook.

The country is set to introduce legislation in weeks, which would lead to a ban a year later, giving platforms time to devise plans for excluding children.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “Social media is doing social harm to our young Australians. The safety and mental health of our young people has to be a priority.”

Opponents of the plan included more than 140 academics with expertise in related fields who signed an open letter to Albanese last month which said that a social media age limit was “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.”

Critics say most teenagers are tech-savvy enough to get around age verification, and a ban overlooks the beneficial side of social media platforms, which provide useful information to kids for whom the channels have become the main way to get information.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said 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 solution.”

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Instagram has already introduced tougher rules for teenage users of the platform.

Teen accounts were introduced last month in the UK, US, Canada, and Australia. This restricts access to algorithms that can deliver unsuitable content and access to teen accounts unless followers have been individually approved.

In the US, the Senate has passed the Kids Online Safety Act, which intends to create a duty of care requiring platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent harm to minor users, including limiting addictive features and offering the ability to opt out of personalised algorithmic recommendations, said Lucy Blake, partner at law firm Jenner & Block.

Monika Sobiecki, Media Law Partner at Bindmans, warned that teenagers could easily evade the bans. “The restrictions rely upon social media companies being able to implement age verification technologies,” said Sobiecki.

“We have yet to see effective technological measures that protect children’s privacy and are not trivially evaded by determined teens.

“The laws fail to tackle the underlying problems with social media platforms, which is that they are built on addictive algorithms designed to maximise user engagement and the targeting of advertising to generate revenues.

“The laws are an empty gesture if they are not accompanied by proposals for more systemic change — for example, a parallel version of the platform for children, potentially on a paid-for subscription model.”

Blake added: “Content moderation and platform governance decisions require a complex and fine balance between users’ rights to free speech, privacy, and safety.”

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