A fine of up to 50 million Australian dollars
Failure to comply with this obligation will result in fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (30.7 million euros).
Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, regretted that what the sector “already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences” was not taken into account, while ensuring that the law would be respected.
The text, denounced as “rushed”, “fuzzy” and “problematic” by several platforms, obtained the green light from the Australian Senate on Thursday, by 34 votes for and 19 against, after that of the Australian Lower House the day before, and its entry into force is beyond doubt.
The center-left Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who is preparing for elections at the start of the year, championed this text, and called on parents of children to unite with this law. Ahead of the vote, Anthony Albanese said social media was “a platform for social pressure, a source of anxiety, a channel for scammers and, worst of all, a tool for online predators.”
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He said he wanted young Australians to “put down their phones and instead go to the football and cricket fields, tennis, volleyball and swimming pools”. Before the vote, several platforms denounced a “rushed” decision, expressing “serious concerns” about potential “unintended consequences”.
“I will find a way”
Young Australians are already saying they intend to circumvent this ban. “I will find a way, and my friends will do the same,” Angus Lydom, 12, told AFP. “I would like to continue using (social networks), it would be strange not to have them and not to be able to talk to my friends when I am at home,” he explains.
The same goes for Elsie Arkinstall, 11, who believes that social networks have their place even for children, to watch baking or art tutorials. “You can’t learn all this from books,” she says.
On paper, the ban is one of the strictest in the world. But the exact contours of its application remain unclear. The text provides almost no details on its application methods so that some experts have expressed doubts about the technical feasibility of this ban and questioning its symbolic nature.
WhatsApp and Youtube exempted
Meta expressed his determination that “the rules be applied systematically for all social media applications used by adolescents”. Tech companies will have at least a year to comply with the new obligation, while Australian regulators clarify the details relating to the application of the law.
Certain platforms such as WhatsApp and YouTube, which adolescents may need to do their homework, should also be exempted. Programs teaching children to think “critically” about what they see online should be adopted, like Finland, social media expert Susan Grantham told AFP.
The entry into force of this new legislation will be closely monitored abroad, with several countries also considering implementing similar restrictions. In the US state of Florida, a law is due to come into force in January to prohibit the opening of an account to under-14s but the practical arrangements have not been determined.
In Spain, the government also presented a draft bill in June to prohibit access to social networks for those under 16, although the method of age verification has not been determined. There is no scheduled date for review of the text.
China has restricted access for minors since 2021 and requires identification via an identity document. Those under 14 cannot spend more than 40 minutes a day on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and online gaming time for children and adolescents is limited.
