The federal government has passed a law to ban children under 16 from social media
Platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit and X, will have 12 months to comply or face fines of up to $50 million.
Messaging services, online gaming and health and education related services, such as Headspace, Google Classroom and YouTube, will be exempt from the ban.
The Online Safety Amendment Bill was passed by 34 votes to 19, and is expected to pass the House on Friday morning.
The legislation was introduced to protect young people during critical stages of their development, but academics, politicians and advocacy groups fear the ban could drive teens to the dark web or make them feel more isolated.
"Platforms now have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of our kids is a priority for them," said prime minister Anthony Albanese.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has raised concerns over “the lack of evidence underpinning the legislation”.
“We are concerned about the process which rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“Last week, the Parliament’s own committee said the ‘causal link with social media appears unclear,’ with respect to the mental health of young Australians, whereas this week the rushed Senate Committee report pronounced that social media caused harm.”
Meta said it respects the decision and will comply with the law.
However, the tech giant is concerned about the reliability of age assurance technologies and how it will be implemented.
“The task now turns to ensuring there is productive consultation on all rules associated with the bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens,” the spokesperson said.
“One simple option is age verification at the operating system and app store level which reduces the burden and minimises the amount of sensitive information shared.”
WeAre8 social media founder and CEO Zoe Kalar warns that the ban “will encourage a generation of young people to lie about their age and attempt to cheat the system”.
“The critical issues are safety and eliminating the addictive algorithms so social media is healthy for everyone,” she told AdNews.
“We need social technology to ensure young people and all people are protected from toxic content and abuse in all forms while shielding them from the algorithms that fuel anxiety and encourage endless scrolling.
“This is what we have built at WeAre8 and why we will continue to work with governments to address safety and algorithm changes to the legislation.
“There are a lot of positive capabilities of social technology and we need to elevate the young voices, not suppress them. Helping them feel seen, heard and valued in a safe inspiring social home is the solution.”
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