Australia social media ban for under-16s takes a big step closer to becoming law

The lower house of Australia’s parliament passed legislation Wednesday that, if approved as expected, will ban children under the age of 16 from using most social media platforms, bringing the country ever closer to implementing what would be a uniquely strict law governing kids internet habits. 

The country’s House of Representatives passed the bill by a sweeping margin, with 102 votes in favor and only 13 against the legislation. It will now move to the Senate where it’s expected to pass during the parliament’s final session of the year on Thursday. 

Australia’s major parties in the House all supported the bill, which would see social media companies such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for failing to prevent people under 16 from creating accounts on their platforms.

Tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, has called for the bill to be delayed.

In a statement posted online Tuesday, Meta said it was “concerned the government is rushing this legislation without adequate consultation or evidence and there are still many unknowns with respect to its implementation.”

“The Government’s approach will likely require each app provider to collect personal identification or biometric data from all Australians in order to prevent under 16s from accessing their services, an inefficient and burdensome process for everyone,” a Meta spokesperson said. 

Meta also pointed to a policy it introduced earlier this year on its Instagram platform, Instagram teen accounts, which limits who can contact teenagers via their accounts and attempts to moderate the content that young users see. 

In a post shared last week on the X platform that he owns, tech billionaire Elon Musk also condemned the Australian bill and said it seemed to him “like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians.”

Other independent bodies and non-profit organizations have also taken aim at the bill, voicing concern that young people’s human rights could be restricted by it. 

The CEO of the Save the Children charity Mat Tinkler said in a statement earlier this month that while he welcomes government efforts to protect children from harm online, the solution should be regulating social media companies, rather than introducing a blanket ban.

“We are asking the government to reconsider this legislative approach and instead use the momentum of this moment to hold the social media giants to account, to demand that they embed safety into their platforms rather than adding it as an afterthought, and to work closely with experts and children and young people themselves to make online spaces safer, as opposed to off-limits,” Tinkler said. 

The Australian Human Rights Commission, an independent government body, expressed its own “serious reservations” over the proposed law in an analysis published last week. 

“There are less restrictive alternatives available that could achieve the aim of protecting children and young people from online harms, but without having such a significant negative impact on other human rights. One example of an alternative response would be to place a legal duty of care on social media companies,” the analysis said. “We also need to help children and young people to better navigate online spaces by ensuring the national curriculum includes a specific focus on teaching digital literacy and online safety.” 

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese rejected criticism of the proposed law as he addressed the parliament Monday. 

“There are common sense exemptions. We want to make sure that young people can continue to access health and education related services — Headspace, YouTube, Google Classroom — as well as messaging services and online games,” he said.

The Australian leader added that there would be “very strong and strict privacy requirements to protect people’s personal information, including an obligation to destroy information provided once age has been verified.”

Despite the criticism, the legislation remains popular among Australians, according to recent polling data. 

A YouGov survey released Tuesday showed 77% of Australians back the ban on under-16s, and 87% of said they supported the introduction of stronger penalties for social media companies that fail to comply with regulations.