The federal government has announced plans to ban under-16s from social media platforms. The ban will cover Australian children and teenagers under the age of 16, even if they already have a social media account. The ban is not likely to be in place for at least a year.
Monash University director of strategic communications Dr Mugdha Rai said the ban has the potential to alleviate stresses shared by children and their parents.
“There is clearly a growing frustration in Australia regarding the increasing intrusion of social media platforms in our children’s lives. Concerns have been raised across the spectrum by parents, educators and mental health experts for a number of years,” Dr Rai said.
“This planned ban for under-16s attempts to address these concerns. With this legislation, the government proposes to hold these corporations accountable and put the onus on them to keep our children off their platforms.
“The premise of this legislation therefore is well-intentioned and likely to be widely popular. The devil, of course, is in the detail. Regulating digital and social media has been notoriously difficult and, at this stage, the legislation raises a number of questions that will need answering.
“The legislation requires social media companies to take ‘reasonable steps’ to block people under 16. What would these ‘reasonable steps’ look like? How exactly will age be verified? By the platforms themselves? By a third-party? Privacy concerns will clearly need to be addressed in either case. So far the government has indicated an awareness of these concerns and a timeline to work through them.”
