Anthony Albanese has endorsed a campaign to ban children from registering social media accounts until they are 16, saying too much online engagement at a young age is seriously damaging their mental health.
The prime minister is backing moves to raise the minimum age for registering social media accounts from 13 to 16 to give teenagers extra time to grow without being subjected to social pressures that can be exacerbated online.
“What we want is our youngest Australians spending more time outside playing sport, engaging with each other in a normal way and less time online,” Albanese told Nova FM radio on Tuesday. “And one way to do that is through restrictions on social media.”
He said the often-vicious commentary on social media could harm adults and have an even worse impact on children.
“It can be devastating,” Albanese said, adding: “I don’t look at the comments on my social media because, if I did, I’d find it difficult to leave the house in the morning. People will say things anonymously that are terrible.”
Nova radio presenter Michael Wipfli – known as “Wippa” – and Rob Galluzzo, the chief executive of the production company Finch, are running a campaign to raise the minimum registration age to 16. They have started a petition, “36 months”, calling for government to “raise the threshold for social media citizenship” through a 36-month delay in the age at which children can have an account, to give them more time to develop without exposure to its influence.
In an interview on Tuesday morning Albanese declined the program presenters’ invitation to sign the petition himself – arguing that it was ultimately directed at him – but endorsed it overall and urged others to sign.
“I assure you I am very supportive of the work that is taking place and I would encourage people to go to 36months.com.au,” Albanese said.
News Corporation newspapers are running a separate campaign and petition to raise the minimum age to 16.
On Monday night the independent senator for the Australian Capital Territory, David Pocock, raised the issue of increasing the minimum age to 16 in a post on Instagram.
“Children are losing their childhoods because they have’t yet developed the self control to resist these highly addictive products,” Pocock said, adding that teachers and parents were raising their concerns with him and calling for action from government.
State premiers in Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales have also backed the campaign to raise the age.
In responding to the campaigns, Albanese pointed to the government’s proposed trial, given $6.5m in funding in last week’s budget, of an age assurance trial for websites – particularly those with adult content.
There is little detail about the trial to be run by the office of the eSafety commissioner, including how it will work, which sites will be included, whether social media will be part of the trial or when it will begin.
Upon registration, social media sites generally require people to provide a birthdate and will not allow people aged under 13 to register. This is, however, easily bypassed, and companies such as Meta employ other methodologies to weed out younger users, including analysing behavioural patterns consistent with similar younger users such as what pages they follow and what is said on their pages around their birthday.
Instagram also has age verification in Australia, under which a user can verify their age as over 18 by uploading an ID, using a video facial age estimator or having another over-18 account vouch for them.
The UK, which has implemented age assurance legislation, is the example most proponents suggest Australia should follow. The UK scheme is still in the early stages and the trial only applies to adult sites, not social media. It requires sites to check with banks, mobile providers or credit card companies or requires users to provide ID or upload a photo for facial age estimation.
As the eSafety commissioner faces multiple legal challenges to her enforcement powers by Elon Musk’s X, the government has not indicated what penalties companies might face for non-compliance, and social media companies are waiting for detail on the trial before indicating whether it would be supported.
Meta told a previous parliamentary inquiry on online safety in 2022 that the age limit of 13 struck the right balance.
“As per our terms, we require people to be at least 13 years old to sign up for Facebook or Instagram. Our approach to understanding a user’s age aims to strike a balance between protecting people’s privacy, wellbeing, and freedom of expression.”
Albanese said on Tuesday the trial would need to ensure it would be effective.
“We want to make sure that any changes that are made actually work,” he said. “You don’t want them being circumvented around the side door, if you like. And the internet is difficult – we know that’s the case – to provide any restrictions.”
• This story was amended on 22 May 2024 to clarify that the “36 months” campaign is being run by the Nova radio presenter Michael Wipfli and the Finch production company chief executive Rob Galluzzo. It is not a Nova campaign as an earlier version said. The headline was updated on 23 May 2024.
