Australia plans age limit to ban children from social media

wait a minute. most of the things on the internet are written by children, right? no one over 12 can be writing all this stuff.

Hasn’t Albanese ever heard of parents?

"I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts," Albanese said.

As if this and using the Internet are mutually exclusive…

And how about parents who want to get their kids into the computer science labs?

Now just make that age 150 and we can be all set.

I like the idea, but good luck policing that one...

Now just make that age 150 and we can be all set.

not bad idea.lets start with...you

kind of good idea.

kids need be more free for other activities.

agree with Tony.plsy soccer,swim in ocean,do hiking or anything else...

If this goes through there will be many angry parents. It means they will actually have to do some parenting instead of stuffing a device in the kids’s faces.

As it should be, social media companies should be fined for pushing this stuff onto kids and not protecting them from adult, cyberbullying and other threats. Internet being a necessity in day to day life is nice and all but it also causes problems the more easier it is to access. When I was a kid only the rich families always had internet on one computer through dial up but now every device, tablet, nintendo switch can browse the internet. And yeah there are parents telling their children no and parental blocks but what kids lack in EQ these days is made up for in intelligence. A bored kid with internet access has the time and patience to learn thousands of ways to outsmart their parents

As much as this seems like a really good idea, I wonder if it could backfire so that when kids turn 16 they become even more emotionally dependent on social media than people already are.

I know this is impossible to enforce, but I think it would be even better if everyone, all ages, were limited to spending no more than xx minutes on social media per day.

I like the idea, but good luck policing that one..

Yeah, agreed.

Now just make that age 150 and we can be all set. ....not bad idea.lets start with...you

LOL, good one Eastmann.

some (or many) might just revert to watching the goggle-box all day and night.... that was the visual drug of choice for what, 50, 60 years.

I like Lndsay's point....

don't know about Oz, but from what I see around me here in Japan, regardless of age almost everybody is suffering from Screenworld Syndrome, whether commuting, crossing the street, driving.... anything. looks a lot like addiction to me.

Ridiculous idea.

Define social media. That's most everything on the internet these days.

Anyways, the kids are much more savvier than these politicians.

My friends in high school found plenty of ways to get around the filters at school.

Besides, a VPN would make that law meaningless.

The internet is much more than just social media.

The threat of a lawsuit with real damages will get reputable social dis-media companies to obey. Their current ToS all require age 13 or higher right? 16 doesn't seem unreasonable. 18 or the local age of "adult" seems like a better age to me.

I'd like a limit of 1 hour/day to be imposed site/app-wide, regardless of age too. If you want to spend more time, create multiple accounts. ;)

They will be forcing 16 year olds to upload a drivers license photo to let them on Boomer Facebook, meanwhile they will install the newest Telegram clone and do whatever they want.

"Australia plans age limit to ban children from social media."

That seems reasonable, until you try implementing it. Bearing in mind for many, video games is the new parenting method and the main cause of child obesity.

EastmannToday 12:52 pm JST

Now just make that age 150 and we can be all set.

not bad idea.lets start with...you

I'm already not on social media, because your compatriots pretty much.

*because of

Not a fan of social media, and grew up loving sports, but he's warped if he thinks he can force kids to play sports and stay off social media. Better to educate on how to protect yourselves on social media.

Not a totalitarian type move...

Next, people will be to have a government-issued "license" to access the internet.

This is a responsibility for PARENTS, not the Nanny-State.

The intention of the law seem pure.

I guess there's so much money to be made by sucking peoples' attention that the companies will find a way in.

To enforce such a proposal, all citizen's would have to provide a form of identification before access to social media.

How will this data be handled, to guarantee privacy, from any Australian government, present/future insists on access to monitor audit and verify?

I suggest this is a ruse, in the guise of "social media child protection" to hide a wealth of ulterior motives, a stepping stone to mass state surveillance.

It is clear all child social media internet access must the sole decision and guardianship of parents family.

Such proposals must insist on a formal referendum vote, public debate, parliamentary time to ensure checks and balances, to fully comprehend understand line by line the legislation. Oversight from independent privacy watchdog ombudsmen independent NGO's

Especially the small print, the hidden agendas!!

This is a responsibility for PARENTS, not the Nanny-State.

Yeah lets pretend half of the parents in this world are good at parenting a generation that they don't understand. It isn't a bad idea if social media proof of who you are with photo ID being a requirement and birthdate verification just to make an account. Leads to less fake and spam accounts that people make just to start chaos too

when we were kids we use to play in park.

talk to each other.summer season kick ball,winter season ice hockey.

sure that time there was no internet,no social sites,no iphones.

todays young generation missing a lot good things.Tony is right.

Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and "onto the footy fields

Doubtful if this could get kids off their devices

Albo Australias worst ever pm comes up with the most ridiculous stuff to try attempt to get the media eyes off his woeful governing..any person with half a peanut knows this will never happen.

Mom's just need to tell their kids to go outside more. The kids will figure out things to do. If the Mom's work together, they can effectively prevent going from house to house to play video games, watch the boobtube or IM on phones. An agreement that on non-rainy days, sending all the kids outside shouldn't be a hard sell.

Kids under 16 need to have locked down phones if they even have a device at all.

Use the parental controls on the devices. That's why they are there. Prevent the kid from loading any apps and force the device to use only wifi for web access where filtered DNS is provided to block content the parents don't want their child to see.

This will work like Albo,s VFT dream. Never. This bloke has been a political from the day his single mother gave birth. He will always wear this single mum badge of pride with honour. Well I also had a single mother and I have no pride at all. I also grow up knowing a lot of single mother and my experience is that they not all were that nice nor did they do it hard like most of minimum wage earning family I grow up with. I bet when Albo was at school his mum was down the TAB sourcing out suiters.