Australia: proposed ban on social media use for those under 16 y.o.

Children under the age of 16 are not allowed. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will introduce a minimum age to access Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. An age-verification test will be conducted in the coming months before the law takes effect by the end of the year. “I want to see children away from their screens and (instead) on soccer fields, swimming pools and tennis courts, ” the center-left prime minister said.

“We want them to have real experiences with real people, because we know that social networks are harming society,” he later told national channel ABC.

Questioned repeatedly on the issue, Anthony Albanese indicated that he personally supports a minimum age of 16. Conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton voiced support for the government’s bill. “Every day of delay leaves children vulnerable to social media threats, ” he said.

A “reckless and reckless” plan.

However, analysts believe that an age limit will not help socially challenged young people. For Daniel Angus, professor at Queensland University of Technology, the government’s plan is “ reckless ‘ and ’ ill-considered ” because it comes before the final report of a parliamentary inquiry into the effects of social networks on Australian society. The plan “ undermines the inquiry and the principles of deliberative democracy and threatens to do great harm by excluding young people from meaningful and healthy participation in the digital world, ” continues the expert, who heads the University’s Digital Media Research Unit. The law could redirect large numbers of children to “‘ lower quality’ online spaces, ‘ eliminating important means of social connection,” he added.

According to Toby Murray, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology at the University of Melbourne, it is not even certain that the technical means exist today to enforce such a limitation. “ The government is testing age-verification technology. But we already know that current methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent or risky for users’ privacy, “ he says. For his part, the prime minister says parents are waiting for a response to online harassment and a way to control access to dangerous content posted on social networks.

A proposed law in the United States

In the United States, Florida, starting next year, children under the age of 14 will not be able to open an account on a social network. Teens aged 14 and 15 will need parental consent to register on these platforms. The Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives and main sponsor of the bill, Paul Renner, welcomed the adoption of the law last March. “We know (…) that more crimes are committed against children on social networks than anywhere else, ” he said at the time. He added:

“We also know that social networks have a devastating effect on the mental health of our children.”

Similarly, Democratic and Republican senators introduced a bill in the U.S. Senate in April that would raise the age limit to 13 for using social media. However, a hearing date has not yet been scheduled for the bill.

Most platforms set the minimum age to open an account at 13, but this rule is easy to circumvent. In France, Emmanuel Macron said in June that he was in favor of banning cell phones “before the age of 11” and social networks “ before the age of 15.” “All experts say that screen addiction is the breeding ground for all kinds of problems: harassment, violence, dropping out of school, ” he said at a press conference to launch his campaign for early parliamentary elections.

These actions are in accordance with the suggestions made in a report on the effects of youth screen exposure that was turned in at the end of April by a commission of experts. The report calls for prohibiting the use of screens for very young children and severely restricting their access for teenagers. It is in this context that pupils have been banned from using phones in nearly 180 secondary schools, with the “ digital pause ‘ set to become widespread from ’ January 2025.”