In this photo provided by AAP IMAGE, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese participates in Question Hour at Parliament House in Canberra on September 10, 2024. | Photo credit: AP
The Australian government promised on Tuesday (September 10, 2024) that it will enact legislation this year to enforce a minimum age of access to social media for children, but it has not yet announced how age verification will be carried out.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the government would soon test age verification technology to prevent children from opening social media accounts. The limit would be drawn between the ages of 14 and 16.
Many countries and US states are attempting to enact legislation to protect children from harm caused by social media, including bullying.
The move comes at a time when parents in Australia are raising their voices for the safety of their children online and the opposition party has promised to ban social media for children under 16 years of age if it wins the elections to be held in May next year.
“We have committed to introducing legislation for age verification before the end of this year to ensure that we can keep young people away from this social harm,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“It’s a curse. We know that what many young people have had to deal with can have mental health consequences. There can be online bullying, access to content that causes social harm, and parents want a response,” Albanese said.
Lisa Given, an information technology expert at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, said the government’s plan would also deprive children of access to useful content.
“That’s actually a very problematic move,” Given said.
“It’s a very blunt instrument that will potentially deprive children of some very useful support on social media.”
The state of South Australia recently proposed a law that would fine social media companies that fail to keep children under the age of 14 off their platforms.
Published – September 11, 2024 02:07 am IST