PM Albanese personally pushed to deny minors under 16 access to these websites.
Australia intends to outlaw children’s use of social media, with a minimum age requirement of 16 years old to be established by federal law. The project, which was unveiled by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Tuesday, is to increase children’s participation in non-recreational activities like athletics and decrease their screen time.
Later this year, the law will be drafted, according to Albanese, who called social media a “scourge” that has detrimental effects on young people. Australia views the ban as an essential step in encouraging younger people to lead healthy lifestyles.
According to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, children will be permitted to access Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, and other similar networks between the ages of 14 and 16. The precise age limit has not yet been determined. Albanese personally pushed to prevent minors under 16 from having access to these sites.
Experts have warned that it will be extremely difficult to adopt such limitations on the internet, thus testing of the age verification trials will take place in the coming months.
“I want to see kids off their devices and onto the tennis courts, swimming pools, and football fields,” said Albanese.We want children to interact with real people because we are aware of the negative societal effects of social media. He went on, “This is a scourge.” We are aware that the struggles faced by many young people have an impact on their mental health.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton echoed this sentiment, saying, “Every day that goes unnoticed exposes young children to the dangers of social media and the need for reliance on tech companies to impose age restrictions.”
According to Toby Murray, an associate professor at the University of Melbourne who specializes in computing and information technology, it is still unclear if the technology required to successfully implement these restrictions is already accessible.”We already know that current age verification methods are untrustworthy, too simple to exploit, or compromise user privacy,” he stated.
The chief digital media researcher at Queensland University of Technology, Daniel Angus, expressed worry and stated that problematic kids would not benefit from an age restriction ban. “By excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world, it threatens to create serious harm,” he stated.
“There is logic in establishing boundaries that limit young people’s access, however, young people are not the problem and regulating youth misses the more urgent task of regulating irresponsible social media platforms,” stated Samantha Schulz, senior sociologist of education at the University of Adelaide.Youths’ lives are inevitably impacted by social media.
The demand for parents to take action against bullying and harmful content on social media platforms was emphasized by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. He said, “These social media companies think they’re above everyone,” in his radio interview.They do, however, currently fail to fulfill their social obligation. And we’re committed to ensuring that they succeed.
