Australian Parliament Introduces Bill to Stop Under-16s Using Social Media

A photo of logos of major social media platforms and companies, in Canberra, Australia, on Nov. 7, 2024. Lukas Coch/AAP Photos

An Australian government minister on Nov. 21 introduced a bill to parliament aiming to ban people under the age of 16 from using social media, saying that online safety is one of the toughest challenges facing parents in the modern age.

Australian Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told the Australian Parliament in Canberra that social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Reddit, and X were some of the websites that could face AU$50 million ($33 million) in fines for failing to stop young people from having accounts on their platforms.

“This Bill seeks to set a new normative value in society—that accessing social media is not the defining feature of growing up in Australia,” Rowland told the House of Representatives. “There is wide acknowledgment that something must be done, in the immediate term, to help prevent young teens and children from being exposed to streams of content, unfiltered and infinite.”

If it becomes law, the platforms would have one year to work out how to implement the age restriction.

“For too many young Australians, social media can be harmful,“ Rowland said. ”Almost two-thirds of 14- to 17-year-old Australians have viewed extremely harmful content online, including drug abuse, suicide or self-harm, as well as violent material. A quarter have been exposed to content promoting unsafe eating habits.”

The government said the bill has widespread political support, with state research reportedly finding that 95 percent of Australian parents and guardians regarded online safety as one of their “toughest parenting challenges.”

Rowland said the platforms have a social responsibility and should do more to address harm.

“The Bill puts the onus on social media platforms, not parents or young people, to take reasonable steps to ensure fundamental protections are in place,” Rowland said. “This is about protecting young people, not punishing or isolating them, and letting parents know we’re in their corner when it comes to supporting their children’s health and wellbeing.”

The bill faces opposition both at home and abroad.

Billionaire Elon Musk has warned that the government in Canberra intends to go further with its plans for restricting the internet.

The majority owner of the X platform said in a Nov. 21 post that the move seems “like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.”

Child welfare and internet experts have also raised concerns about the proposed legislation, saying the ban could isolate 14- and 15-year-olds from their already-established online social networks.

Amnesty International Australia’s Nikita White said in a Nov. 21 statement that although there was no doubt that social media was harming children’s rights, it also “offers children and young people benefits such as inclusion, social connection and a sense of belonging, all of which can also support their mental health.”

She said that rather than an outright ban, the best way to protect children on the internet was by protecting all users with stronger data protection laws and not using profiling to personalize feeds.

Justine Humphry, one of three authors of a study into emerging online safety issues, told the Australian Associated Press last week that the ban was “unenforceable” and wouldn’t provide long-term benefits for young people.

“The technology required for age verification of young people is very unreliable and still exploratory,” the University of Sydney digital cultures lecturer said.

Based on research funded by the eSafety Commissioner, Humphry said that the vast majority of teenagers aged 12 to 17 surveyed suggested they could evade age restrictions.

Sydney-based Digital Industry Group Inc., an advocate for Australia’s digital industry, also raised concerns that with a vote on the bill expected next week, there may not be sufficient time for “meaningful consultation on the details of this globally unprecedented legislation.”

Rowland said age restrictions would not apply to messaging services, online games, or platforms that substantially support the health and education of users, saying that while there are still risks to users from those services, they did not face “the same algorithmic curation of content and psychological manipulation to encourage near endless engagement.”

Canberra announced last week that a consortium led by UK company Age Check Certification Scheme has been contracted to seek ways to verify the ages of internet users.

Age Check Certification Scheme CEO Tony Allen said on Monday that the technologies being considered included age estimation and age inference software, as well as parental controls.

Age inference involves establishing a series of facts about individuals that suggest that they are at least a certain age before granting them access.

Along with banning under-16s from social media, the Australian government is also looking for ways to prevent under-18s from accessing pornography and gambling sites.

In a bid to assuage privacy concerns, Rowland said the platforms would face the same penalties for misusing personal information gained for age verification as they would for allowing underage users on their sites.

She said that any information gained for age assurances must be destroyed after serving that purpose unless the user specifically consents to it being held.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.