Australian govt to ban social media access for children younger than 16

Australian children younger than 16 will be banned from using social media under a proposal put forward by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.

Albanese and Communications Minister Michelle Rowland on Thursday pledged to legislate a minimum age limit of 16 years for social media access.

The Prime Minister had previously announced an intention to introduce legislation to parliament for the age limit before the end of 2024 but had not committed to a specific cut-off age.

He said on Thursday that the legislation would take responsibility for enforcing the minimum age limit on social media platforms, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I’m calling time on it,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.

“It’s something of enormous concern, and we know the social harm that can be caused, and we know the consequences here.”

Under the government’s plan, online platforms that fail to restrict access to children will face penalties. Neither users under 16 who manage to access social media nor their parents or guardians will be penalised.

The ban will come into effect 12 months after the legislation passes parliament and will be enforced by the office of the government’s Safety Commissioner.

“This is world-leading legislation, and we want to make sure we’ve got it right. We think there will be some, of course, exclusions and exemptions as well for this, to make sure that there aren’t unintended consequences, but we think this is absolutely the right thing,” Albanese said.

Albanese said he would discuss the proposal with state and territory leaders at a special meeting on Friday.

The federal budget for 2024-25 included funding to trial potential age-assurance technology options. Albanese and Rowland said on Thursday that the results of the trial would inform how the new age limit is imposed.

The federal opposition Coalition earlier in 2024 announced it would support a minimum age limit of 16.

With the support of the Coalition, Albanese’s governing Labor Party would have the requisite votes to pass the legislation through both houses of parliament.