Australia’s Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese has announced a plan to ban children from using social media.
The Prime Minister, on Tuesday, said that the government would introduce legislation in 2024 to enforce a minimum age for access to social media and other relevant digital platforms.
“We know social media is causing social harm, and it is taking kids away from real friends and real experiences,” he said in a statement.
He said that the legislation would be informed by engagement with the states and territories, but his preference is to set the minimum age at 16 years.
According to a poll conducted by state broadcaster the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in August, 61 per cent of Australians supported restricting social media access to those younger than 17.
At the same time, Peter Malinauskas, the premier of South Australia, commissioned former federal judge Robert French to explore legal pathways to ban children younger than 14 from social media.
The prime minister said that the federal government would consider Robert French’s review when drafting the legislation.
Australia has one of the world’s most online populations with more than four-fifths of its 26 million people on social media, according to government and tech industry figures.
Albanese announced the age restriction plan against the backdrop of a parliamentary inquiry into social media’s effects on society, which has sometimes heard emotional testimony of poor mental health impacts on teenagers.
But the inquiry has also heard concerns about whether a lower age limit could be enforced and, if it is, whether it would inadvertently harm younger people by encouraging them to hide their online activity.
Australia’s own internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, warned in a June submission to the inquiry that “restriction-based approaches may limit young people’s access to critical support” and push them to “less regulated non-mainstream services”.
The commissioner was not immediately available to comment on Albanese’s plan.
