Australia is planning to ban children from using social media amid concerns that platforms like Instagram and TikTok are negatively affecting young people’s physical and mental health.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday that the government will launch an age verification trial in the coming months ahead of the introduction of legislation to enforce a ban.
Albanese said his centre-left Labor Party government is considering a minimum age of between 14 and 16.
Albanese said parents are “worried sick” about their children’s use of social media and are “working without a map”.
“Parents want their kids off their phones and on the footy field. So do I,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “We are taking this action because enough is enough.”
Opposition leader Peter Dutton, the head of the centre-right Liberal Party, has previously expressed support for banning social media for those under 16 years old.
China, France, and several states in the United States have passed laws aimed at restricting social media use by minors amid concerns over online harms ranging from cyberbullying to unrealistic beauty standards.
Critics have argued that such measures impinge on young people’s right to expression and pose risks to privacy.
Daniel Angus, professor of digital communication at Queensland University of Technology, criticised Australia’s proposed ban as “reckless”, “populist” and a “misguided distraction”.
Such a ban would “create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world, potentially driving them to lower quality online spaces, and removing an important means of social connection,” Angus said in a post on LinkedIn on Tuesday.
“It also means that very large online platforms are going to be let off the hook in making necessary reforms to the quality of content on their platforms, as this simply places a gate at the door rather than improving what’s on the other side.”
