Australia, on Thursday, November 28, 2024, approved a social media ban for children aged under 16 after an emotive debate that has gripped the nation.
The law forces tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok to stop minors logging in or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million).
A trial of methods to enforce it will start in January with the ban to take effect in a year.
The Social Media Minimum Age Bill sets Australia up as a test case for a growing number of governments which have legislated or said they plan to legislate an age restriction on social media amid concern about its mental health impact on young people.
Countries including France and some U.S. states have passed laws to restrict access for minors without a parent’s permission, but the Australian ban is absolute. A full under-14s ban in Florida is being challenged in court on free speech grounds.
Getting the law passed after a marathon last day of Australia’s parliamentary year marks a political win for centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese who goes to an election in 2025 amid sagging opinion polls.
The ban faced opposition from privacy advocates and some child rights groups, but 77% of the population wanted it, according to the latest polls.
Against the backdrop of a parliamentary inquiry through 2024 which heard evidence from parents of children who had self-harmed due to social media bullying, domestic media backed the ban led by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the country’s biggest newspaper publisher, with a campaign called “Let Them Be Kids”.
The ban could however strain Australia’s relationship with key ally the United States, where X owner Elon Musk, a central figure in the administration of president-elect Donald Trump, said in a post this month it seemed a “backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians”.
It also builds on an existing mood of antagonism between Australia and mostly U.S.-domiciled tech giants.
Australia was the first country to make social media platforms pay media outlets royalties for sharing their content and now plans to threaten them with fines for failing to stamp out scams.
A spokesperson for Meta said the Facebook owner respected Australian law, but it was “concerned” about the process, which “rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people.”
“The task now turns to ensuring there is productive consultation on all rules associated with the Bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens,” the spokesperson told Reuters.