Australia introduces a ban on social media for children under 16. Why is this important?

Since December 10, a ban on the use of social networks by children under 16 has been introduced in Australia. The banned list includes 10 popular platforms in the country. Their owners, under threat of a fine, are required to check that users comply with the age limit. At the same time, the children and parents themselves will not be punished for the violation. What will be the first such law in the world — in the material of Izvestia.

What law has Australia adopted?

• Amendments to the Internet Security Act come into force in Australia on December 10. They prohibit children under the age of 16 from using social media. The amendments were adopted in November 2024, they were supported by 101 deputies out of 150 in the lower house of parliament and 34 senators out of 77, as well as the governments of all states and territories of the country. Australia will become the first country in the world to legislate such a ban.

• The law requires social media companies to introduce special controls within a year that will prevent minors from owning accounts on their services. Otherwise, corporations will be fined up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33 million). The children themselves and their parents will not be held responsible for violating the law. At the same time, parents will not be able to seek exceptions for their children so that they still use social networks.

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• The Office of the Commissioner for Electronic Security forms a list of social networks that are prohibited. Instagram Facebook, Instagram (owned by Meta, recognized as extremist and banned in the Russian Federation), X (formerly known as <url>), and others were included in the banned list. Twitter), YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Reddit, Snapchat and Threads, as well as the Australian video streaming service Kick.

• Exceptions have been made for some electronic services that are messengers or are important for education and healthcare. The ban for minors will not apply to Discord, GitHub, Google Classroom, LEGO Play, Messenger, Pinterest, Roblox, Steam and its chat, WhatsApp and YouTube Kids.

Reaction to the law

• The law has received widespread support from the people of Australia. When it was adopted, 77% of the respondents said they were in favor of age restrictions. 87% of respondents also said that companies that violate the ban should be severely punished. A year later, support for the law has barely changed. At the same time, more than half of the parents said they would choose which platforms their children would use, and a quarter of the respondents were confident that the law would not work.

• Most of the companies affected by the ban have stated that they intend to comply with it. To do this, internal algorithms will be used to determine the age based on activity and uploaded photos. If a user over the age of 16 is blocked from their account, they will be able to access it after uploading their identity documents. Meta started deleting accounts on December 4, even before the law came into force.

• However, not all companies agreed with the ban. Google planned to file a lawsuit and get the ban lifted, insisting that its YouTube video hosting service is not a social network, but can be used without an account, which makes age control meaningless. The owners of Snapchat and Reddit publicly announced their disagreement with the law. The owner of X, Elon Musk, called for delaying the entry into force of the ban and argued that in this way the Australian authorities are putting pressure on freedom of speech on the Internet. The press service of X also called for the introduction of age control at the level of electronic devices, rather than social networks.

What will the ban on social media lead to?

• By introducing the ban, the Australian Government aimed to reduce the negative impact of social media on children. According to his research, 96% of users aged 10-15 used social networks, and seven out of ten of them were exposed to malicious content. These included materials of a misogynistic and violent nature, propaganda of eating disorders and suicide. Also, half of the users were subjected to cyberbullying.

• However, there are concerns that the law will not work as intended by its authors. Age detection technologies will not be able to perfectly identify underage users, so some children will be able to circumvent the ban, and some adults will be blocked. To bypass the locks, users will be able to use a VPN, since there are no such strict prohibitions for minors in other countries, or use their parents' accounts.

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Will the measure help reduce the number of such materials and protect citizens?

Critics of the law point out that verifying the age of users will lead to a large-scale collection of additional data and the need to store it, and if it is not sufficiently protected, leaks will occur, the victims of which will be children. It is also noted that dating services, online games and chatbots based on artificial intelligence, which may also contain destructive content, are not at risk of fines. Opponents of the bans believe that children should be taught how to use social networks so that they do not experience their negative impact.

• Other countries are already following the example of Australia and want to adopt similar legislation. So, in November, the Danish government announced plans to ban access to social networks for children under the age of 15, while with parental consent they can be used from the age of 13. The Norwegian government is currently promoting the same law. In France, a parliamentary commission has recommended banning social media for children under 15. The Spanish government wants to raise the minimum age for using social media to 16.

Why is this important

• More and more countries in the world are trying to restrict social media for the younger generation, and Australia is the first of them to introduce specific restrictions. At the same time, it will not be the users themselves who will be harassed, but the companies that own online platforms. This step should limit the influence of IT corporations, which they exert everywhere in various fields, from economics to culture. The more countries take this step, the more confidently it will be possible to assert that the era of social networks and the companies behind them is gradually moving towards sunset.