Teenagers could be facing a social media ban sooner than expected under a push to it bring forward, as the world-first mandate draws condemnation from international free speech and human rights advocates.
Australians aged under 16 will be banned from social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) a year after legislation passes parliament.
Tech billionaire and X owner Elon Musk slammed the legislation, saying it “seems like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians”.
While acknowledging concerns about the negative impact of social media on children, a mandatory age limit was “a Trojan horse to create digital IDs”, free speech and anti-censorship advocate Michael Shellenberger said.
This would be “a giant leap into the totalitarian dystopia depicted in “Black Mirror,” and already in place in China,” he said.
The federal government has ruled out mandatory digital IDs and the coalition has drawn a red line over their implementation.
How the age limit will be enforced is up to the social media platforms, but they have raised concerns about the efficacy of technology that doesn’t unduly encroach on privacy.
Tech giants and human rights groups have also come out against a blanket social media ban on the grounds that the focus should be on creating a safe online experience and not stripping access to some of the positive benefits.
There will be carve outs for platforms that focus on health and education, set to include Messenger Kids, WhatsApp, Kids Helpline, Google Classroom and YouTube, Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said.
It could come into effect as early as the end of 2025 due to a minimum 12-month lead time from when it passes parliament – which it’s set to do imminently with Labor and coalition support – but the opposition wants this reduced.
“We cannot act quickly enough because there is a tsunami of mental health issues occurring right now,” Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
Young boys were accessing violent porn in grade three and four, which impacted their view of healthy relationships and women, and young girls were facing bullying on popular social media platforms, Senator McKenzie said.
“We want to halt that harm and deal with the issues raised by families,” she said.
But she ruled out the implementation of a digital ID being used to verify a person’s age, with the onus set to be on social media platforms to enforce the ban rather than the federal government mandating a particular technology.
Companies that breach the minimum age obligation will face fines of up to $49.5 million.
The legislation will go under the microscope during a single-day parliamentary hearing on Monday, which some have slammed as too short to adequately assess the impact and potential unintended consequences.
