Get your ticket to GaijinPot Expo 2024
Social media giants on Friday hit out at a landmark Australian law banning them from signing up under-16s, describing it as a rush job littered with "many unanswered questions".
The U.N. children's charity UNICEF Australia joined the fray, warning that it was no "silver bullet" and could push kids into "covert and unregulated" spaces online.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the ban may not be implemented perfectly -- much like existing alcohol restrictions -- but it was "the right thing to do".
The crackdown on sites like Facebook, Instagram and X, approved by parliament late Thursday, will lead to "better outcomes and less harm for young Australians", he told reporters.
Platforms have a "social responsibility" to make children's safety a priority, the prime minister said. "We've got your back, is our message to Australian parents."
Social media firms that fail to comply with the law face fines of up to Aus$50 million (U.S.$32.5 million).
Meta -- owner of Facebook and Instagram -- and other companies said that despite the law's perceived shortcomings, they were keen to engage with the government on shaping how it would be implemented in 12 months.
"We are 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," Meta said in a statement.
The legislation offers almost no details on how the rules will be enforced -- prompting concern among experts that it will simply be an unenforceable, symbolic piece of legislation.
Meta called for consultation on the rules to ensure a "technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens".
A Snapchat spokesperson said the company had raised "serious concerns" about the law and there remained "many unanswered questions" about how it would work.
But the company said it would engage closely with government to develop an approach balancing "privacy, safety and practicality".
"As always, Snap will comply with any applicable laws and regulations in Australia," it said.
UNICEF Australia policy chief Katie Maskiell cautioned that the ban was not a "silver bullet".
Young people need to be protected online but they also need to be included in the digital world, Maskiell said.
"This ban risks pushing children into increasingly covert and unregulated online spaces as well as preventing them from accessing aspects of the online world essential to their wellbeing," she said.
One of the biggest issues will be privacy -- what age-verification information is used, how it is collected and by whom.
Social media companies remain adamant that age-verification should be the job of app stores, but the government believes tech platforms should be responsible.
Exemptions will likely be granted to some companies, such as WhatsApp and YouTube, which teenagers may need to use for recreation, school work or other reasons.
The legislation will be closely monitored by other countries, with many weighing whether to implement similar bans.
Lawmakers from Spain to Florida have proposed social media bans for young teens, although none of the measures have been implemented yet.
China has restricted access for minors since 2021, with under-14s not allowed to spend more than 40 minutes a day on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.
Online gaming time for children is also limited in China.
© 2024 AFP
17 Comments
Login to comment
wallace
Big Brother Aussie style. China limits internet time for youths but does not ban it.
dobre vam zajebava
Japan should follow australian steps to right direction.Earlier-better.
wallace
Against the constitution.
Desert Tortoise
The ferocity of the objections by big tech shows just how much they depend on twisting the minds of young people to get them to spend money on things the tech industry promotes and how much they value the information they collect (steal) and sell to other firms through their web browsers and social media sites. They are a truly reprehensible and rapacious lot.
Desert Tortoise
Why? Minors can be prohibited from any number of adult activities, drinking, smoking, gambling, owning firearms, getting married, etc. Why is banning them from using social media different or somehow "unconstitutional"?
HopeSpringsEternal
Great idea, youth desperately need to be legally protected from these digital corp. monsters and their ecosystems busy exploiting them, bravo Australia!!!
HopeSpringsEternal
If you can make advertising for cigarettes or porn illegal, lawyers can easily defend this public GREAT policy!
ian
Are online games included?
Anycase I'd like to see how they'll prevent the target population from using non Australia based social media platforms instead
ian
What steps are those?
ian
And why 16? Why not under 18?
browny1
Those blurting Cry Freedom have missed the underlying causes in the decision to make this legislation.
Is it over-stifling? Perhaps. Is it perfect? No. Are there problems? Yes.
But there is need for something to be seen to be done.
SMS is currently problematic for many children in Australia. Not withstanding the enormous positives such platforms can offer, 10,000s of kids are being harassed, maligned, bullied, condemned, scammed etc regularly.
Primary teachers often remark about how Monday mornings have become heated as students return to school after a weekend of messaging/posting.
Fake news/photos/stories about kids posted by other kids has become a real social problem.
Does it involve a majority? No - but it does involve large numbers representing a serious new threat to the right of all kids to be free of taunts, discrimination and bullying en masse.
Personally I think it will be difficult to totally enforce with many unanswered questions on implementation.
But the BIG plus is that it is being thrown into the open and actively discussed.
Making out it is not a problem and against the freedom of speech by the likes of Richy Musk et al , just aren't switched on to the realities of the damage unfolding.
Better to approach it now than wait 10 years more.
Jay
Oh, the irony! Big Tech, the self-proclaimed guardians of progress, whining about Oz daring to regulate their endless data-mining buffet of underage users.
And The Government, as usual, swoops in with its clumsy overreach to 'protect' kids, while ignoring the fact that tech giants have been exploiting them like tiny gold mines for years.
Here's a wild idea: maybe both Big Brother and Big Tech could take a step back, stop pretending they're the saviors of society, and let parents actually parent for a change. But no, they'd rather fight over who gets to control us next.
Desert Tortoise
Sounds so nice, so pat, so easy. Parents could do that now. There is nothing stopping them. But they don't. So in your view do nothing? Be very clear about this.
Jay
Yeah mate, well obviously, the only solution is for the government and Big Tech to swoop in and micromanage everyone's lives. Newsflash: parents could do it now if Big Tech wasn't designing apps to be as addictive as possible, and if our government didn't treat every issue like a golden opportunity to expand its control.
Sure, I'll be clear about this: the last thing families need is some bureaucratic nanny state OR Silicon Valley deciding what's best for their kids. Do yourself a favour: how about you stop excusing their overreach and let parents actually be parents?
travelbangaijin
Big Tech is harming the mental health of these teens with constant images of their peers living a "perfect life" with a "perfect body" increasing depression cases and create environments for cyberbullying.
Ricky Kaminski13
Absolutely spot on. They have zero conscience, are predatory by nature, the damage they are doing to young brains is undeniable and they will use whatever free speech argument that they can pick up and run with to deny them their profits. Let Australia lead the world on this one, we are not like Japan where we need to know the outcomes of everything before we even consider changing, nor are we quite at the stage where our society is completely controlled by and subservient to big tech, at least not yet.
We can think on our feet and adjust course as we go.
Save Our Kids Straya! SOKS ;P
John-San
What ever the law is, it will have the same effect as did underage drinking as in Australia.