Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that the government will toughen enforcement of the country’s pioneering social media ban for children, after a study claimed that the six-month-old law has had almost no impact on actual teenage internet use. Citing the report, news agency Reuters said that early data indicates that tech platforms are failing to keep children off their apps. Australia made headlines in December by implementing a law that legally blocks under-16s from holding accounts on major platforms like Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube.“What we want to do is to make sure that the laws are as strong as possible and that they will withstand any legal challenges which are made,” Prime Minister Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp, adding that a major priority moving forward is ensuring the eSafety Commission, Australia’s internet regulator, is given enough enforcement power to properly police tech giants.
The selfie loophole: How teens stayed online
Australia’s social media ban is being monitored by governments worldwide while some are ready to combat rising youth mental health crises. The UK, for example, recently announced plans to go even further by extending future restrictions to gaming and live-streaming platforms.As per the data published this week in the British Medical Journal, Australia’s ban exists largely on paper. A study tracking 408 adolescents found that 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still actively using social media three months after the ban officially took effect.According to the research, underage users are utilising simple workarounds to maintain their accounts. About two-thirds of underage users simply self-declared a fake birth year showing they were over 16. Further, other children uploaded facial selfies that the platforms’ automated systems accepted as being over the age limit.“Despite the intent of the [ban] to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents,” the research paper concluded.
Australia ‘warns’ of massive fines and court battles
In response to the non-compliance, Australian communications minister Anika Wells and the eSafety Commission revealed they are preparing major legal action against multiple social media companies. Under the current law, tech firms face a maximum penalty of A$49.5 million ($34 million) if they are found to have failed to prevent children from creating accounts.The crackdown comes amid fierce pushback from Silicon Valley. Content-sharing platform Reddit has already launched a formal challenge against the ban in Australia’s High Court, a case that is currently entering preliminary hearings.
