Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that his left-leaning government is preparing to set a minimum age limit for children to use social media, possibly between 14 and 16 years old.
“We want kids to get off their devices and onto the soccer field, the pool, the tennis court. We know social media is causing harm to society and we want kids to have real experiences with real people,” Albanese said. said In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
“Parents are worried about this,” he says. said “We know they are working without a map. No generation has faced this challenge before.”
Mr Albanese said he personally would like to set the minimum age even higher than 16. His Labor government plans to carry out “age verification” trials to test censorship technology and determine the ideal minimum age for access to social media.
“What we're looking at is how to get that done,” Mr Albanese said on Tuesday. “We know it's not simple and it's not easy, otherwise the government would have acted on it before.”
The Prime Minister said the new policy needed to be implemented at a national level to avoid “disparate responses from eight states” that have different minimum ages for social media.
Mr Albanese added that he would consult with state and territory governments before any laws restricting access to social media are introduced next year. South Australia has already proposed fining social media companies that allow under-14s to use their platforms.
“This is a disaster, we know there are mental health impacts from what many young people have had to deal with, the bullying that occurs online, access to material that causes social harm and parents are demanding action,” Mr Albanese said. said.
Internet rights activists and civil liberties advocates have generally been critical of proposals to ban young people from using social media, but there is little political opposition to the idea in Australia. The opposition Liberal Party, led by Peter Dutton, has called for an age limit of 16. Only the Green Party has strongly opposed the idea, arguing that young people should be better educated about the dangers of social media rather than banned from it.
Critics of the minimum age proposal say it will not only deny children access to useful knowledge online, but could also drive them into dark corners of the internet in attempts to circumvent social media bans.
Daniel Angus, director of digital media at Queensland University of Technology, warned that this “impulsive move” could “exclude young people from meaningful and healthy participation in the digital world and push them into lower-quality online spaces, where it could cause serious harm”.
“This is a very blunt measure and has the potential to exclude children from very helpful social media support,” said Lisa Given, an IT expert at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
Associate Professor Toby Murray, University of Melbourne Claimed Because social media can provide positive support to troubled and marginalized young people, banning them from it could cut them off from helpful communities. This will perhaps be even more of an issue for those who happen to be between 14 and 16 years old when the social media minimum age comes into effect.
Other critics pointed out “Social media platforms” is a slippery concept. It's one thing to suggest banning 14-year-olds from Facebook, TikTok, and Twitter, but it's hard to imagine messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Animal Crossing and Roblox? The latter game is already hot water Some governments and child welfare advocates have expressed concern over the matter, as bad actors have been found lurking in social media forums.
The idea of keeping young people off social media is not new, but Australia could become the first democratic government to implement a nationwide ban. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced in March Signed A bill that would ban children under the age of 14 from creating social media accounts and require 14- and 15-year-olds to get parental consent before creating an account.
“We want to help parents navigate the very difficult situation of raising children,” DeSantis said, a sentiment very similar to comments made by Australian Prime Minister Albanese on Tuesday.
Governor DeSantis famously vetoed previous bills that would have set the minimum age for social media at 16 and required Floridians to provide identification to create social media accounts.
