Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

[Savonarola]

From Reuters

Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

SYDNEY, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Australia on Wednesday became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access in a move welcomed by many parents and child advocates but criticised by major technology companies and free-speech advocates.

Starting at midnight (1300 GMT on Tuesday), 10 of the largest platforms including TikTok, Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab YouTube and Meta's (META.O), opens new tab Instagram and Facebook were ordered to block children or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million) under the new law, which is being closely watched by regulators worldwide.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it "a proud day" for families and cast the law as proof that policymakers can curb online harms that have outpaced traditional safeguards.

"This will make an enormous difference. It is one of the biggest social and cultural changes that our nation has faced," Albanese told a news conference on Wednesday.

"It's a profound reform which will continue to reverberate around the world."

READ A BOOK INSTEAD, PM TELLS YOUNGSTERS

In a video message, Albanese urged children to "start a new sport, new instrument, or read that book that has been sitting there for some time on your shelf," ahead of Australia's summer school break starting later this month.

Some of those below the cut-off age of 16 were anxious about adjusting to life without social media, but others were less concerned.

"I'm not really that emotional about it," said 14-year-old Claire Ni. "I'm kind of just, like, neutral."

Luna Dizon, 15, said she still had access to her TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat accounts, but worried about "culture shock" once the ban took full effect.

"I think eventually, without (social media), we'll learn how to adapt to it," she added.

TEENAGER SIGNS OFF WITH 'SEE YOU WHEN I'M 16'

While the government has said the ban would not be perfect in its operation, about 200,000 accounts were deactivated by Wednesday on TikTok alone, with "hundreds of thousands" more to be blocked in the next few days.
Many of the estimated 1 million children affected by the legislation also posted goodbye messages on social media.

"No more social media ... no more contact with the rest of the world," one teen wrote on TikTok.

"#seeyouwhenim16," said another.

Others said they would learn how to get round the ban.

"It's just kind of pointless, we're just going to create new ways to get on these platforms, so what's the point," said 14-year-old Claire Ni.

BAN HAS GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS

The rollout caps a year of debate over whether any country could practically stop children from using platforms embedded in daily life, and begins a live test for governments frustrated that social media firms have been slow to implement harm-reduction measures.

"I'm happy that they want to protect kids, and I'm happy that we have a chance to see how they do it and see if we can learn from them," said European Union lawmaker Christel Schaldemose, who wants to see greater protection for the bloc's children.

Albanese's centre-left government proposed the landmark law citing research showing harms to mental health from the overuse of social media among young teens, including misinformation, bullying and harmful depictions of body image.

Several countries from Denmark to New Zealand to Malaysia have signalled they may study or emulate Australia's model.

At a school in the German city of Bonn, students spoke favourably of a ban.

"Social media is highly addictive and doesn't really have any real advantages. I mean, there are advantages, such as being able to spread your opinion, but I think the disadvantages, especially the addiction, are much worse," said 15-year-old pupil Arian Klaar.

Julie Inman Grant, the U.S.-born eSafety Commissioner who is overseeing the ban, told Reuters on Wednesday a groundswell of American parents wanted similar measures.

"I hear from the parents and the activists and everyday people in America, 'we wish we had an eSafety commissioner like you in America, we wish we had a government that was going to put tween and teen safety before technology profits,'" she said in an interview at her office in Sydney.

'NOT OUR CHOICE': X SAYS WILL COMPLY

Elon Musk's X became the last of the 10 major platforms to take measures to cut off access to underage teens after publicly acknowledging on Wednesday that it would comply.

"It's not our choice - it's what the Australian law requires," X said on its website.

Australia has said the initial list of covered platforms would change as new products emerge and young users migrate.

Companies have told Canberra they will deploy a mix of age inference - estimating a user's age from their behaviour - and age estimation based on a selfie, alongside checks that could include uploaded identification documents.

For social media businesses, the implementation marks a new era of structural stagnation as user numbers flatline and time spent on platforms shrinks, studies show.

Platforms say they earn little from advertising to under-16s, but warn the ban disrupts a pipeline of future users. Just before the ban took effect, 86% of Australians aged eight to 15 used social media, the government said.

($1 = 1.5097 Australian dollars)

While, personally, I think no one should have access to social media; I'm curious what Languish thinks of the ban and if they would support such a measure in their own country.

I'm willing to be convinced otherwise, but I wouldn't support an effort like this in the United States as I think kids are just going to find away around the ban.  (I guess that could be an argument for the ban.  Just like the Spartans didn't give their young men enough food in order to teach them to forage; we can deprive our children of the internet so they can learn to become haxxors.)

[crazy canuck]

The argument that we should do nothing because some percentage of people will find a work around is not a very persuasive argument for me.

That is like saying we should have no criminal laws because there are people who find ways of avoiding prosecution.  We should have no regulations because some people ignore them etc.

[Jacob]

On the face of it, I'm in favour - personally my kids are banned from social media. I think social media as it exists today is harmful to kids (and adults for that matter).

There's also the bit that the owners and leaders of social media companies are by and large attempting to undermine democracy and turn Europe into fascist leaning colonies of the US and Russia, so I'm in favour of anything that undermines their reach.

I'll definitely watch the developments with interest.

[garbon]

On the face of it, I'm in favour - personally my kids are banned from social media. I think social media as it exists today is harmful to kids (and adults for that matter).

There's also the bit that the owners and leaders of social media companies are by and large attempting to undermine democracy and turn Europe into fascist leaning colonies of the US and Russia, so I'm in favour of anything that undermines their reach.

I'll definitely watch the developments with interest.

Same on all points.

[Josquius]

I'm in favour of the ban in theory. I've heard some of the details about execution are quite dodgy though. Reminds me of the UKs recent rule with age verification which is really quite terribly done.

[DGuller]

How do you handle VPNs?  Do you let teens use them to bypass the filters, or do you ban adults from using VPNs as well?

[Jacob]

How do you handle VPNs?  Do you let teens use them to bypass the filters, or do you ban adults from using VPNs as well?

I don't know, which is why I'll be watching with interest.

That said, "motivated teens with some degree of tech acumen finding ways to circumvent a ban" is going to be a smaller subset of teens than "any teen with a mobile device getting social pressure to sign on to social media and having a zero friction path".

[HVC]

How do you handle VPNs?  Do you let teens use them to bypass the filters, or do you ban adults from using VPNs as well?

I don't know, which is why I'll be watching with interest.

That said, "motivated teens with some degree of tech acumen finding ways to circumvent a ban" is going to be a smaller subset of teens than "any teen with a mobile device getting social pressure to sign on to social media and having a zero friction path".

I think you underestimate the will of teens and how quickly information disseminates.

That being said social media is a disease and I have no better answers, so have at it.

[Valmy]

I think it is a bad idea for kids to have social media accounts and be on social media.

However...this is unenforceable and to the extent it is enforceable it will have disastrous consequences. We are seeing something similar with the State of Texas' war on internet porn. They are implementing a bunch of catastrophically bad and privacy destroying measures and have yet to actually keep anybody from internet porn.

[Valmy]

How do you handle VPNs?  Do you let teens use them to bypass the filters, or do you ban adults from using VPNs as well?

I don't know, which is why I'll be watching with interest.

That said, "motivated teens with some degree of tech acumen finding ways to circumvent a ban" is going to be a smaller subset of teens than "any teen with a mobile device getting social pressure to sign on to social media and having a zero friction path".

Having a little friction in their path is going to come at an enormous price. That is my concern.

[DGuller]

Yeah, my concern was that in order to enforce the ban against teens, you'll have to seriously intrude upon the privacy of adults (if nothing else so that they can prove that they're not teens).  That said, I do hope that it will be a success, because I think social media is a poison.

[Sheilbh]

I'm very strongly supportive - and I'd go further and ban smartphones for under 16s.

I think Australia's really leading the way on tech stuff (see also the news bargaining code). The big tech companies have thrown tantrums - I think Facebook temporarily shut down in Australia - but have ultimately all had to go along with it. I think Australian politician seem admirably free of the learned helplessness we see elsewhere.

I would add that one aspect that is helpful is Murdoch. Obviously in no way have you got to hand it to Rupert Murdoch, but he's not a tech tycoon. He doesn't own a social media platform. His business is making content of various times. Australia has one of the most cosolidated news media landscapes in the world (basically Murdoch plus other media moguls and the odd mining billionaire) - but they all probably have an interest in making the American social media companies' pips squeak

[mongers]

Yeah, my concern was that in order to enforce the ban against teens, you'll have to seriously intrude upon the privacy of adults (if nothing else so that they can prove that they're not teens).  That said, I do hope that it will be a success, because I think social media is a poison.

Google have been raping your privacy for decades now.

[Sheilbh]

I think it is a bad idea for kids to have social media accounts and be on social media.

However...this is unenforceable and to the extent it is enforceable it will have disastrous consequences. We are seeing something similar with the State of Texas' war on internet porn. They are implementing a bunch of catastrophically bad and privacy destroying measures and have yet to actually keep anybody from internet porn.

Yeah as I said when we were talking about the Online Safety Act and porn I do think this is coming more broadly in the world and larger and larger parts of the internet will be age-gated. In principle I don't have an issue with that. 15 year olds are not allowed to go into a sex shop and buy a porn DVD (if either of those things still exist) - I'm not totally clear why the internet should be different.

I prefer the Aussie approach which is cleaner and about services. While in the UK (and in parts of European law through the DSA/DMA) it's more about age-gating content. I think that puts power back in the hands of the platforms to make judgement calls of what is or isn't safe, who should or shouldn't see it. I think it raises genuine issues of free speech.

Having said that I take yours and DG's point. The age verification companies are a mixed bag and on the day the Online Safety Act went online there was an ID verification company in the US who announced they'd suffered a masive hack. I think those two are going to interact in quite difficult ways and I'm not fully sure I have an answer. I would say ID verification is an area where there are good private companies who have built good tools but there's a lot who seem shady as shit.

[Valmy]

It is possible to age gate certain websites Pornhub or whatever. But you cannot age gate certain types of content. It's impossible and the attempt to do so will have very bad consequences.

Sure I have no problem with kids not getting porn or not getting social media accounts. But even defining porn or social media is a little tricky.