After several days of debate, Australia approved a law this Thursday that prohibits the use of social networks by those under 16 years of agethus establishing a standard that can serve as a base model for other countries in a global effort to reduce technology addiction and the dangers it poses in minors.
The law, which is expected to come into force within a year—in November 2025— establishes some of the strictest controls in the world for social networks and will force platforms to take measures to ensure age verification protection. To do this, Australia plans to test an age verification system that may include biometric data or government identification. The trial will last several months and its results will be reviewed in mid-2025.
The norm starts with the highest age limit established by any country (in fact, in Spain the Ministry of Youth and Children proposes reducing it to 14 years), and would not take into account parental consent nor would it leave active the accounts that minors have already created before the law came into force.
«This is a historic reform. We know that some children will find a way to skip it“But we are sending a message to social media companies to do things right,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement, after the parliamentary session that lasted late into the night.
Initially, this law will affect Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, X and Snapchat, and will leave out messaging networks such as WhatsAppand in the words of Albanese, to online video games (which have their own established limit) as well as services related to apps or networks for health or education. When Australia passed the bill two weeks ago, Albanese also clarified that networks like Google Classroom or YouTube They will be left out of the veto, “because of their enriching work that adds more than its dangers.”
However, the Australian government maintains a very anti-social media position. Albanese has argued on several occasions that the excessive use of social networks represents a risk to children’s physical and mental healthparticularly for girls, due to harmful representations of body image and misogynistic content directed at children.
Millionaire fines
Under the law, companies could be fined up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (32 million US dollars) in case of breaking the rule and allowing minors to access their social networks.
In their submissions to Parliament, Google and Meta said the ban should be postponed at least until the test of the age verification system is completed, scheduled for mid-2025. For its part, TikTok said the bill needed further consultation, while Elon Musk’s X argued that the proposed law could harm children’s human rights.
A Senate committee backed the bill this week, but also included a condition that social media platforms not force users to submit personal data such as passports and other digital identification documents to prove their age.
Several countries seek to ban social networks
Several countries have already committed to curbing children’s use of social media through legislation, but none as strict as Australia. For example, France last year proposed banning social media use. to those under 15 years of age, but users could avoid the ban if they had their parents’ consent. The United States has for decades required technology companies to ask for parental consent to access the data of children under 13 years of age.
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