Australia has enacted a world-first ban on social media for users aged under 16, causing millions of children and teenagers to lose access to their accounts.
Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Kick, Twitch and TikTok are expected to have taken steps from Wednesday to remove accounts held by users under 16 years of age in Australia, and prevent those teens from registering new accounts.
Platforms that do not comply risk fines of up to $49.5m.
There have been some teething problems with the ban’s implementation. Guardian Australia has received several reports of those under 16 passing the facial age assurance tests, but the government has flagged it is not expecting the ban will be perfect from day one.
All listed platforms apart from X had confirmed by Tuesday they would comply with the ban. The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said it had recently had a conversation with X about how it would comply, but the company had not communicated its policy to users.
Bluesky, an X alternative, announced on Tuesday it would also ban under-16s, despite eSafety assessing the platform as “low risk” due to its small user base of 50,000 in Australia.
Parents of children affected by the ban shared a spectrum of views on the policy. One parent told the Guardian their 15-year-old daughter was “very distressed” because “all her 14 to 15-year-old friends have been age verified as 18 by Snapchat”. Since she had been identified as under 16, they feared “her friends will keep using Snapchat to talk and organise social events and she will be left out”.
Others said the ban “can’t come quickly enough”. One parent said their daughter was “completely addicted” to social media and the ban “provides us with a support framework to keep her off these platforms”.
“The fact that teenagers occasionally find a way to have a drink doesn’t diminish the value of having a clear, national standard.”
Polling has consistently shown that two-thirds of voters support raising the minimum age for social media to 16. The opposition, including leader Sussan Ley, have recently voiced alarm about the ban, despite waving the legislation through parliament and the former Liberal leader Peter Dutton championing it.
The ban has garnered worldwide attention, with several nations indicating they will adopt a ban of their own, including Malaysia, Denmark and Norway. The European Union passed a resolution to adopt similar restrictions, while a spokesperson for the British government told Reuters it was “closely monitoring Australia’s approach to age restrictions”.
Removed by mod
my kid was becoming a piece of shit watching all the YouTube/tiktok bullshit. so, I blocked access to those domains and now limit device access to a couple hours a week.
as a parent it’s my responsibility to protect my children from the dangers of the internet. it’s not the corporations responsibility to ensure the internet is safe for kids. the internet is not a fucking daycare.
since the change they have been far better behaved and respectful. so much so that teachers asked what changed and are currently trialing similar solutions with other parents with success.
you’re just giving excuses and zero solutions, I doubt you even have kids.
That’s something I’ve been telling people for years… Treat the Internet as you would the largest city you know of.
Would you take your kid to Times Square, turn them loose and say “Go have fun!” Of course not, that’s insanity.
My parents had a two hour per day limit on using the computer. The one exception was if we were using it to do homework.
You’re just not very imaginative.
Agreed.
Two for two. With you so far.
I think I like where this is going…
What? How did you make that jump??? No, you fucking dolt, this is abysmal. “Good parenting from the government” would be holding said companies accountable to a bare minimum standard of moderation against mis- and disinformation and bullying and harassment on their platforms. Cutting off the most vulnerable people in our society from their support networks is even more damaging than just doing nothing. Make no mistake, this will make it harder for children in abusive situations to find support, and is going to get people killed.
And doing it by requiring social media sites to collect highly sensitive personally identifiable information from all users is leaving pretty much everybody more vulnerable to identity theft.
What’s more is that this isn’t in any way reining in the tech giants. Au contraire, it’s further pushing control of internet communications into their hands because they’re the ones who have the money needed to implement the verification systems in the first place, while independently run sites that can’t afford to implement such systems will either just have to hope they can fly under the regulator’s radar or cease providing service to Australian users. Just look at the floating pile of rubbish off the French coast, just east of Ireland if you really need an example of a precedent.
No wonder we live in such a fucking nanny state.