Australia will set the minimum age for using social media between 14 and 16, under a bill set to come into effect this year, Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday, September 10.
“I want to see children away from their screens and [plutôt] on football fields, in swimming pools and on tennis courts”he said.
“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is hurting society.”he said again on the national channel ABC.
“Scourge”
Calling these sites “scourge” For young people, he said the federal law establishing the limit would be implemented in 2024, specifying that the minimum age to log in to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok should be set between 14 and 16 years old. An age verification test at the login will be conducted in the coming months before the text goes into effect, Mr. Albanese added. Asked several times on the subject, he said that he personally favors a minimum age of 16.
Conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton has given his support to the government’s bill. “Every day of delay leaves young children vulnerable to threats from social media”he said.
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But analysts say an age limit will not help socially disadvantaged young people. Queensland University of Technology professor Daniel Angus said the government’s plan is « imprudent » et “thoughtless” because it comes even before the final report of a parliamentary inquiry into the effects of social media on Australian society.
This project “undermines inquiry and the principles of deliberative democracy and threatens to cause serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful and healthy participation in the digital world”continues the expert, who heads the university’s research center on digital media. The law could redirect many children to “lower quality online spaces” in “removing important means of social connection”he still laments.
Unreliable age verification methods
According to Toby Murray, associate professor of computer science and information technology at the University of Melbourne, it is not even certain that the technical means to enforce such a limit exist today. “The government is experimenting with age verification technology. But current methods are already known to be unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risky to users’ privacy.”he says.
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The Prime Minister, for his part, maintains that parents are waiting for a response to online harassment and a way to control access to dangerous content published on social networks.
In the same vein, a bill setting the minimum age for social media at 13 was approved in July by the Democratic-dominated US Senate, but has yet to be voted on by the Republican-majority House of Representatives.
In France, the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, said in June that he was in favour of a ban on mobile phones. “before 11 years old” and social networks “before 15 years old”.
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