Australia’s government has announced plans to introduce “world-leading” legislation that would ban children under 16 from using social media.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that the proposed laws, set to be presented in parliament next week, are designed to address the “harm” that social media is causing to Australian children.
“This one is for the mums and dads… They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online. I want Australian families to know that the government has your back,” he said.
While many details are still up for debate, the government has stated that the ban will not apply to young people already using social media.
There will be no exceptions to the age limit for children with parental consent. The government emphasized that it will be the responsibility of social media platforms to prove they are taking reasonable measures to prevent underage access.
Prime Minister Albanese clarified that there would be no penalties for users, and enforcement of the laws would fall under the jurisdiction of Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the country’s online regulator.
The legislation is set to take effect 12 months after it is passed and will be reviewed once it is in place.
While most experts agree that social media can negatively impact adolescents’ mental health, opinions are divided on the effectiveness of an outright ban.
Some argue that such bans merely delay young people’s exposure to apps like TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook, rather than equipping them to navigate complex online environments.
Previous attempts to restrict access, including those by the European Union, have either failed or faced pushback from tech companies. Additionally, concerns remain about how enforcement would work, given that there are ways to bypass age verification systems.
One of Australia’s largest child rights advocacy groups has criticized the proposed ban, calling it “too blunt an instrument.”
In an open letter to the government in October, signed by over 100 academics and 20 civil society organizations, the Australian Child Rights Taskforce urged Albanese to consider implementing “safety standards” for social media platforms instead. The group also referenced United Nations recommendations, which suggest that national policies regulating online spaces should aim to provide children with safe opportunities to engage with the digital world.
But other grassroots campaigners have lobbied Australia’s government for the laws, saying bans are needed to protect children from harmful content, misinformation, bullying and other social pressures.
A petition by the 36Months initiative, which has over 125,000 signatures, argues children are “not yet ready to navigate online social networks safely” until at least 16, and that currently “excessive social media use is rewiring young brains within a critical window of psychological development, causing an epidemic of mental illness”.
When asked whether there should be broader efforts to educate children about how to navigate the benefits and risks of being online, Albanese said that such an approach would be insufficient because it “assumes an equal power relationship”.
“I don’t know about you, but I get things popping up on my system that I don’t want to see. Let alone a vulnerable 14-year-old,” he told reporters on Thursday.
“These tech companies are incredibly powerful. These apps have algorithms that drive people towards certain behaviour.”