Australia Pushes Ahead With Social Media Ban for Teens

Despite criticism and questions over its practicality, the Australian Government is moving forward with a bill to ban social media for users under 16. The Online Safety Amendment bill, aims to establish a minimum age for social media use and place responsibility for enforcement on the platforms themselves. The legislation, which could become law soon, has been in talks for multiple months and has drawn critcism for being a heavy-handed approach to a nuanced set of problems.

The bill mandates that platforms implement systems to detect and block underage users. However, existing age verification methods – already in place on many apps – are not foolproof. The government acknowledges this, stating that while some minors may bypass these restrictions, the law could empower parents to deny their children access to social apps. However, there’s no standard framework for enforcement, leaving platforms to rely on their own varying detection processes.

The bill notably excludes messaging apps such as WhatsApp and Messenger, as well as YouTube, despite its popularity with teens. Emerging platforms like Threads and Bluesky are also not included, creating significant gaps in coverage. These omissions could drive teens away from the regulated platforms and toward unregulated alternatives, inadvertantly moving a large amount of teens to relatively new platforms where the lew hasn’t explicity cracked down on them.

While protecting teens from online dangers is a noble goal, critics argue that banning them outright is not the solution. Teens will likely find ways to circumvent restrictions, and a ban does little to address the root issues of digital literacy and online safety. Experts suggest that mandated cybersecurity education and app store-level restrictions would be more effective, but this would obviously take longer than a blanket ban.

With fines of up to $32 million for noncompliance, the bill represents a significant risk for social platforms who don’t actively comply. The government has fast-tracked the legislative process, allowing just a 24-hour window for amendments – and time will tell if the new ban ends up being a long-standing decision or will undergo further legal changes after a few weeks of seeing what kind of impact it has.