Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced last week that his government plans to ban minors from using social media, with the first step being a pilot age verification test in the coming months.
“We know that social media is a social detriment, that it’s taking kids away from real friends and real experiences,” Albanese said.
Australia has already banned smartphones in public schools from October 2023. Under the new ban, social media will be banned from all devices, and will be banned from children beyond the school walls.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced plans to ban children from using social media at a minimum age of 16. pic.twitter.com/RfSUUbvD0k
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 10, 2024
So why is Australia introducing this ban, and have other countries tried similar things and found them to be effective?
Albanese said parents are “very concerned” about their children’s use of social media.
“Parents want their kids to be off their phones and on the football pitch. I want them to be off my phone …
This is also a politically popular move.
A YouGov poll last month found that 61 per cent of Australians support restricting access to social media platforms to those under 17.
Peter Dutton, leader of the centre-right Liberal Party and leader of the Opposition, has also previously supported a ban on social media for children under 16.
The Australian government has not announced an official age limit for how long the ban would last, but Albanese said it could be set at between 14 and 16.
A new report by former Chief Justice of the Australian High Court, Robert French, on the legal approach the government could take to regulate social media use by minors, proposes 14 years as a lawyer. French was commissioned by South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas to conduct a comprehensive review of the legal implications of such a ban.
In his report, France proposed a draft law known as the Children (Social Media Safety) Bill 2024.
But within Australia, there is opposition to this move from some experts.
What do experts say about Australia’s plans?
Some experts argue that a blanket ban on social media would be an overreach and would also cut off other necessary social services that could benefit minors.
Australia’s national eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said in response to a parliamentary inquiry into social media use in Australia in June 2024 that the ban “could limit young people’s access to vital support”.
She added: “If age-based restrictions are imposed, eSafety is concerned that some young people will access social media in secret. This could mean they are more likely to use less regulated, non-mainstream services, which could expose them to serious risks and access social media without appropriate safeguards.”
Daniel Argus, director of the Queensland University of Technology’s Centre for Digital Media Studies, described the Australian government’s decision as “reckless” and reflective of a “complete disregard for evidence-based policy” in a LinkedIn post.
Argus argued that the proposed ban had two major flaws. “It risks causing serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful and healthy participation in the digital world, potentially forcing them into low-quality online spaces and removing a vital means of social connection,” he warned.
At the same time, he said the ban frees social media companies from “the responsibility to make necessary reforms to the quality of content on their platforms.”
The Argus said the ban “simply puts a door in the door rather than improving the other side”.
It is also a very leaky gateway. Critics have pointed out that using a virtual private network (commonly known as a VPN) allows users to bypass the Australian ban. In fact, in a globally connected online space, any ban would only make sense if it were enforced by the rest of the world.
Other experts point out that there are still challenges in the technical implementation of age verification systems. Any verification system requires interoperability and standardization across various service providers that may use different types of technology. In addition, some areas of the country may not have the infrastructure to support such advanced verification platforms.
Some experts argue that age verification systems raise data privacy concerns.
In May, Australia passed the Digital Identity Bill 2024, which aims to establish a national digital identity verification system, a voluntary system that allows individuals to verify their identity online. The program is scheduled to launch on December 1, 2024.
“So some people are being very cynical and saying that the social media ban is just a way for the government to push through its decision to implement a digital ID system,” Lisa Givens, professor of information science at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and director of the Social Change Activation Impact Platform, told Al Jazeera.
“If a ban were to come into effect and anyone under the age of 16 would be banned from accessing social media platforms, it would mean that all users would have to prove they are over 16 years old.” This would involve signing up to the Australian government’s digital ID system.
Not very good.
USA: The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), passed in 1998, requires “operators of websites or online services” to obtain parental consent to access personal information of children under 13.
Many companies responded by simply blocking access to their services for children under 13, but this only led to massive online age fraud.
The Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), passed in 2000, has placed restrictions on what schools and libraries can allow students to access online on campus. The idea is to protect children from obscene or pornographic content.
But critics have pointed out that this is at best a piecemeal solution, as children can access all content online, even outside of school and libraries. And within educational settings, it often results in blocking access to useful information, such as human anatomy and sex education.
European Union: In 2015, the EU proposed a law that would have banned children under 16 from accessing the internet, including social media, without parental consent. Tech companies and human rights groups alike protested, arguing that it would limit children’s right to access information in the digital age.
Under the revised bill, countries within the bloc would be able to reject the bill or implement a different version.
Despite the criticism, Givens described the EU’s approach as the “gold standard” among such initiatives. Givens said the child-focused restrictions are part of a larger EU initiative known as GDPR, a set of regulations designed to protect individuals’ personal data and privacy by regulating how organizations store, collect and use online data.
“This law (GDPR) really puts a lot of power back into the hands of consumers,” Givens said.
uk: When Britain was still in the EU, it limited parental consent to only those aged 13 or older.
In May 2024, a government committee recommended raising the age of parental consent in England to 16.
But a large study using 18 years of data from 168 countries and published in November 2023 found no causal link between youth well-being and internet use.
france: France enacted a law in July 2023 requiring social networking service providers to deny access to children under 15 without permission from a parent or guardian.
Social platforms that fail to comply can be fined up to 1% of their global turnover. At the time, President Emmanuel Macron asked: “Who sends their child to the jungle at the age of five, 10 or 12?” “Today, we open the door to the jungle for a few hours a day.”
But even though the EU has taken the lead in imposing restrictions, the French case also shows its limitations, Givens said. She noted that while many companies have complied with the ban, some smaller companies have not.
“And (French) kids turned to other companies that didn’t comply with the ban, and found themselves in much ‘murky waters’ where they found content that was actually more harmful than what was available on the mainstream platforms,” Givens said.
Other regulatory steps
Other countries are also trying different strategies to protect children from the harmful influences of social media and the Internet.
China has issued guidelines that will ban minors from using most internet services on mobile devices between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. starting in August 2023. Children aged 16 to 18 will be limited to two hours of internet use per day, those aged 8 to 15 will be limited to one hour, and those under 8 will be limited to 40 minutes. Apps that help with the physical and mental development of minors will be exempt.
In August 2023, India passed a law restricting digital companies’ access to children’s personal data. Brazil introduced similar rules in April this year.
