Minors under 16 years of age in Australia will no longer have access to Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and other similar platforms. The country’s Senate approved a law that forces the main social networks to establish an age barrier for their users. The initiative seeks to protect adolescents and children from digital harassment and mental health problems derived from excessive consumption of online content.
The bill must still go to a final stage before its approval, but analysts warn that it is practically a fact. If you receive the final approval, Within a year all digital platforms operating in Australia must limit their access to those under 16 years of age. They will also have to verify the age of their users. Existing accounts that do not meet the allowed age must be deleted. Meanwhile, platforms that do not comply with the indication They will face fines of up to $32.1 million.
For Anthony Albanese, Prime Minister of the country and main promoter of the initiative, “there is a clear causal link between the rise of social networks and the damage to the mental health of young Australians. They are harming our children and I am going to put them full stop”. Some scientific studies support these claims. Among the most documented effects are the effects on self-esteem, anxiety and the promotion of addictive behaviors. There are even records on the number of videos it takes for a teenager to become obsessed with a platform: 260 is more than enough.
The measure applies only to platforms, with the exception of YouTube. The law mentions that the Google video channel has a direct relationship with the education of young people. Furthermore, it does not seek to regulate users, but rather the platforms that encourage excessive consumption of their content.
Social media companies have described the law as hasty. Their general opinion is that the strict restriction of users will not combat the deep problem of adolescent safety on the Internet. They also predict that there will be chaos and a rout towards more dangerous and less regulated places. “Going forward, it is important that the Government works closely with the industry to solve the problems created by this hasty process,” TikTok published in a statement.
In an interview for WIRED about her latest work about teenagers and social media, documentary filmmaker Lauren Greenfield said: “Technology is important for many reasons, but the current engineering of social media is an unsustainable situation (…) I hope that people understand it, we must feel more empathy for young people. It is not fair to ask them to self-regulate when the applications have been designed to create addiction,” he said.
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