Australian Law Bans Social Media for Children Under 16

The Australian government passed a law on Thursday banning social media for children aged under 16. The move, which appears to have strong public support, is one of the world’s toughest regulations targeting Big Tech.

The law forces tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok and Snapchat to stop minors logging in or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million). A trial of methods to enforce it will start in January with the ban to take effect in a year.

A number of countries have already vowed to curb social media use by children through legislation, but Australia’s policy is the most stringent.

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Messaging apps, online gaming services, plus sites like YouTube that do not require users to log in to access the platform will not fall under the ban.

Book explains mental health risks for kids

The spark for the Australian law is ‘The Anxious Generation’, a book written by US social psychologist Jonathan Haidt that details social media’s impacts on teenagers.

The 2024 bestseller includes internal emails revealed by Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen showing that the tech giant knew about social media’s health risks to children, but allegedly resisted imposing controls on grounds of free speech, privacy, limits of age-checking technology.

Indeed, the US surgeon general called in June for health warnings be put on social media.

The wife of the politician leading Australia’s second smallest state read Haidt’s book early this year and told her husband to take action, according to Reuters.

“I remember precisely the moment that she said to me ‘You’ve got to read this book and you’ve got to do something about it’,” South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas told reporters in Adelaide on Friday, the morning after the country’s federal parliament passed the nationwide ban.

“I didn’t reasonably anticipate it would take on so quickly,” he added.

Malinauskas’ quest to restrict youth access to social media in his state, which represents just 7% of Australia’s 27 million population, to the world’s first national ban took just six months.

The speed underscores the depth of concern in the Australian electorate over the issue. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is due to hold an election in early 2025, knew it was a hot issue.

An Australian government YouGov survey found that 77% of Australians back the under-16 social media ban, up from 61% in August prior to the government’s official announcement. Only 23% oppose the measure.

Rodrigo Praino, a professor of politics and public policy at South Australia’s Flinders University, said: “The federal government including the prime minister understood immediately that that was a problem that needed to be solved (and) best addressed if it’s done nationwide. Allowing kids to indiscriminately use social media has become an issue globally.”

Strains with Meta, X spurred inquiry, media campaign

When Malinauskas, a father of four, answered the call from his wife in May, Facebook and Instagram owner Meta had two months earlier said it would stop paying content royalties to news outlets globally, potentially triggering an Australian online copyright law.

Meta’s decision was one reason why the federal government decided to open a broad inquiry into societal impacts of social media, ranging from the merits of age-gating social media to the knock-on effects of Meta cancelling royalties.

Opposition lawmakers meanwhile began calling for age restrictions on social media against the backdrop of a legal fight between X and Australia’s e-Safety regulator over the spread of false and graphic content related to two public knife attacks in Sydney in April.

In May, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the country’s biggest newspaper publisher, began an editorial campaign to ban children under 16 from social media, calling “Let Them Be Kids”.

Through the middle of 2024, News Corp mastheads and the parliamentary inquiry aired emotional accounts from parents whose children had taken or lost their lives as a result of bullying and body image problems tied to social media.

After Malinauskas unveiled his state policy banning under-14s in September, Albanese was in the media the next day saying his government would enact a federal version by the end of the year.

“Parents want their kids off their phones and on the footy field,” said Albanese, who like Malinauskas is from the centre-left Labor party. “So do I.”

The proposed South Australian ban was, however, largely in line with restrictions already legislated in countries including France and US states like Florida, which held the door open for teens over 14 to keep using social media with parental permission.

The federal model that Albanese’s government introduced to parliament in Canberra this month carried no parental discretion, with the explanation that it freed parents from the burden of playing a policing role.

Social media firms not happy

The ban was roundly attacked by social media companies which complained it gave them full responsibility – and the threat of a A$49.5 million fine – without telling them how it would work. A trial of age-verification technology begins next year.

A spokesperson for TikTok, which is hugely popular with teen users, said on Friday the process had been rushed and risked pushing young people to “darker corners of the internet”.

The left-leaning Greens Party rejected the law as rushed and unfair on young people, while some far-right lawmakers broke from their party’s support and voted against it on concerns of government overreach and potential surveillance.

But with locked-in support from the government and most of the opposition, the law was passed just after 11pm on the last parliamentary day of the year. It takes effect in one year.

“I’m pleased to see that it’s got as far as it has in Australia,” said Robert French, the former High Court judge commissioned by Malinauskas in May to report on whether a state-based age restriction would be possible.

Some of French’s recommendations, including making the ban national and putting responsibility on platforms to take reasonable steps to keep minors out, are included in the final legislation.

“The basic sensible model is in place,” French said by telephone.

A spokesperson for Meta said: “The task now turns to ensuring there is productive consultation on all rules associated with the bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens.”