Australia To Ban Social Media For Children Under 16 In World-Leading Initiative

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced today a legislation plan for a social media ban for children and teenagers under 16.

“Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I’m calling time on it,” said the Prime Minister during a morning conference.

According to Reuters, Albanese called the measure a world-leading package and expects it to become a law by the end of next year.

The government is testing an age-verification system to block social media platforms for children, one of the most severe measures across the globe.

Once the system is deployed and under the law next year in Australia, there will be no exemptions, even if parents want to allow their children to access these platforms.

Experts have previously warned about the risks of this initiative. Australian professors, parents, and teenagers have expressed concerns about isolation—especially for minorities like members of the LGBTQIA+ community, and immigrants with families abroad who find connections and build relationships through social media platforms.

The Prime Minister highlighted the risks to the physical and mental health of children from consuming content from these platforms and their addictive algorithms. Albanese mentioned how misogynist content aimed at boys and harmful body image messages aimed at girls could affect them during their development.

According to Al Jazeera, the initiative would involve multiple social media platforms. Michelle Rowland, Australia’s Minister of Communications, said that Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, Tiktok, X, and probably YouTube are among the networks affected by this new measure.

Apple recently introduced a safety feature on iMessage to report nudes in messages sent to children under 13.