The bill concerning children under the age of 16 contains almost no instructions on its implementation. According to critics, the law may remain a symbolic gesture.
Social media giants on Friday criticized an Australian bill that would ban the use of social media by under-16s. According to the companies, the law is sloppy and full of unanswered questions.
The UN children’s organization Unicef also agreed with the criticism of messaging services. Australia’s Unicef warned that the law would not be any kind of silver bullet against the disadvantages of the network. Instead, according to the organization, it could push children and young people into secret and unregulated parts of the web.
Prime Minister of Australia Anthony Albanese according to which the law may not be implemented perfectly, but it was the “right thing to do”. The centre-left Albanese has promoted the bill diligently.
According to the Prime Minister, social media platforms have a social responsibility to prioritize children’s safety.
The bill has now passed the House of Commons and the Senate. The bill will be discussed one more time in the lower house before it becomes law. Australian Broadcasting Corporation According to ABC however, it is mainly a formality.
The law will enter into force in a year at the earliest.
Millions of fines threaten those who break the law
According to the bill, social media companies must take “reasonable steps” to prevent minors from opening social media accounts. Otherwise, companies face fines of millions.
Companies that do not comply with the law can be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars, or just under 31 million euros.
The hugely popular video service Tiktok expressed its disappointment with the Australian law on Friday. The service accused the country’s government of ignoring mental health, online safety and youth experts who opposed the ban.
– It is entirely likely that as a result of the ban, youth will be pushed into the darkest corners of the internet, where there are no community guidelines, safety tools or protections, Tiktok’s representative said.
Some services receive exemptions
Despite the law’s perceived flaws, tech companies have said they are working with the government to figure out how to enforce the ban.
Although the bill appears on paper to be one of the strictest in the world, it contains almost no guidelines for implementation. This has led many to suspect that the law will only remain a symbolic gesture that cannot be properly implemented or monitored.
In addition, some services, such as Whatsapp and YouTube, will probably receive exemptions because they are widely used in, for example, studying.
One of the biggest issues is privacy – what age verification information is used, how it is collected, and who collects it. Social media companies are adamant that age verification should be the job of app stores, but the government believes messaging services should be responsible for this.
Other countries are watching Australia’s actions closely, with many considering whether to introduce similar bans.
China has restricted the use of social media by minors since 2021, and those under the age of 14 are not allowed to spend more than 40 minutes a day on Douyin, the Chinese version of Tiktok. Children’s online gaming time is also limited in China.