The Govt. of Australia on Thursday introduced a bill in the parliament that aims to ban social media for children under 16 and introduced a fine of A$49.5 million for social media platforms for systematic breach of the rule. They also planned a trial on an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identity verification to enforce social media age cut-off. This is one of the toughest moves made by any country till date.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese addressed this as a landmark reform. This comes after the Albanese-led Labor government has crossed swords on excessive use of social media which has a serious impact on children’s physical and mental health especially for girls who can be exposed to harmful depiction of body image and nudity, and male supremacist content for boys.
Many countries have already vowed to curb the usage of social media by children through legislation and government policies but Australia’s policy makers have been very strict towards it.
Though there are some softwares like messaging, online gaming, and health and education related services, such as youth mental health support platform Headspace, google classroom and youtube which are still available for the underages. Albanese informed in his statement. This move is also supported by the opposition Liberal Party.
The law would force social media platforms, and not parents or young people, to take reasonable steps to ensure the age-verification protections are in place.
