Criticism of social media ban for under-16s in Australia
Major social media companies and the United Nations have criticized the Australian parliament's decision to ban the use of social media by children and young people under the age of 16. The online service Tiktok expressed its "disappointment" with the law.
The ban risks "pushing young people into darker corners of the internet where there are no community guidelines and safety rules (...)", a Tiktok spokesperson said.
Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta criticized legislation that had been pushed through in a "rush" and without taking into account "what the industry is already doing to consider age-appropriate experiences and the voices of young people". The company also demanded to be allowed to view the planned regulations in detail in order to be able to offer a "technically feasible" solution for age verification that "does not unduly burden parents and young people".
A spokesperson for the online service Snapchat said that the company was "seriously concerned" about the new law. Many questions about how exactly the new regulation should work remained unanswered.
UN Children's Fund Unicef also warns
Katie Maskiell from the UN children's charity Unicef Australia also warned that children and young people would be forced into "hidden and unregulated online spaces" if they no longer had access to Tiktok, Facebook and the like. The ban would also mean that they would no longer have access to "areas of the online world that are fundamental to their wellbeing", Maskiell added.
With the social media ban for children and young people under the age of 16, Australia has one of the world's strictest regulations for online services such as Tiktok, Instagram and Facebook. Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had described social media as a "platform for peer pressure, a driving force for anxiety, a tool for scammers and a tool for online predators". He wants Australia's young people to get away from their cell phone screens and do sports instead.
In future, operators must take "reasonable steps" to ensure that under-16s cannot set up their own accounts with them. They face fines of up to the equivalent of around 31 million euros if they do not comply with the new regulations. The draft law actually contains hardly any details on how compliance is to be enforced. The exact regulations are still to be worked out and the law is not expected to come into force for at least a year. (SDA/swi)
