Australia has recently passed a landmark legislation that may kickstart a new wave of scrutiny on social media, as the Land Down Under has officially mandated that kids and teenagers under the age of 16 will be entirely banned from using social media starting late 2025. Companies that failed to comply will be subjected to fines up to 49.5 million Australian Dollars (RM143.1 million).
Australia Strikes First
In recent years, regulators and researchers around the world has started to investigate into the relationship of social media and the effects it has towards one’s mental health, particularly to the younger population. The result, thus far, has been somewhat inconclusive – Instagram’s internal reports three years ago concluded that it has detrimental effects to teen girls in particular, though a more recent report from Curtin University found the data to be inconclusive.
However, with social media increasingly filled with toxic discourse, regulators are urged to step in – Australia’s 34-to-19 bipartisan approval of Social Media Minimum Age bill will effectively bar anyone under 16 to use social media. France and United States has thus far opted to restrict access unless parent supervision is present, though an outright ban in the state of Florida has seen roadblocks on America’s First Amendment (free speech) grounds.
Social media companies have responded, with Meta stating that it is “concerned” about the process being rushed while not considering the evidences, opinions of the young people, and the industry’s action at large to remedy regulator’s concerns; Google argued that the legislation should be postponed until after the age verification trial is complete (note that YouTube is exempted as it is widely used in schools). TikTok and X has yet to respond, but the latter is likely to be resistant given its owner, Elon Musk, has actively called out the country for trying to “control access to the Internet by all Australians”.
There are other concerns too, pertaining to privacy – since this law will require some form of age verification, enforcing this law likely meant that companies will require users to present ID verification, potentially allowing state actors to conduct mass surveillance. However, a late-stage amendment added a provision that companies must not force its user to submit personal data for age verification purposes. Advocacy groups also pointed out that blanket bans like this may drive teenagers to the dark web, with even more dangerous content present.
In any case, Australia will begin a trial to test which methods are best to enforce this law in the coming January, with the law expected to go live in late 2025. It’s worth noting that countries like China and South Korea already has age verification in place when accessing content online, but such systems are currently used to ban adult content and some restricted social media content from teens, unlike Australia’s blanket ban measures, which is a world-first.
Source: Reuters
Pokdepinion: Seeing the kind of content around social media these days, I wouldn’t object to bans like these – but it has to be treaded carefully.
I agree with most of the points made, but what about other perspectives? Are they relevant as well?