Australia’s centre-left government has introduced a “landmark” bill in parliament to ban children under 16 from social media.
The legislation could see platforms such as X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram slapped with a fine of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($32.5m) if they fail to bar children from holding accounts.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said on Thursday that the proposed law “places the onus on social media platforms, not parents or children, to ensure protections are in place”.
“For too many young Australians, social media can be harmful. Almost two-thirds of 14 to 17-year-old Australians have viewed extremely harmful content online, including drug abuse, suicide or self-harm,” she told parliament.
The bill, which has the support of the governing Labor Party and the opposition Liberals, would grant no exemptions for parental consent or pre-existing accounts. After it becomes law, platforms would have one year to work out how to implement the age restriction.
The country plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.
However, analysts have expressed doubt it would be technically feasible to enforce a strict age ban.
Katie Maskiell from UNICEF Australia said on Thursday the proposed legislation would not be a “solve-all” for protecting children and that much more needed to be done.
She expressed fears that the law might risk pushing young people onto “covert and unregulated online spaces”.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged in a statement that “some kids will find workarounds”, but stressed the proposals were a “landmark reform”.
Several other countries have been tightening children’s access to social media platforms.
Spain proposed a law in June that would raise the current age limit for social media access from 14 to 16, functioning through parental controls.
France last year proposed a ban on social media for those under 15 but users were able to avoid the ban with parental consent.
And in Florida, in the United States, children under 14 will be banned from opening social media accounts under a new law due to come into force in January.