Australia bans social media for under 16s

Australia fair voted into law a social media ban for children under the age of 16. The legislation was consentd by Australian lawproducers on Thursday with the aim of protecting the mental health of children online, despite opposition from tech companies who claim the rules are unlaborable.

The novel law is scheduled to come into effect in 12 months, giving social media companies time to greet the insistments. These include taking “reasonable steps to stop children who have not achieveed a least age from having accounts.” Children who viotardy these upcoming remercilessions won’t face punishment, nor will their parents — the responsibility lies entidepend with platcreate supplyrs.

“We want Australian children to have a childhood, and we want parents to understand the Government is in their corner,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese shelp in a statement earlier this month. “We understand some kids will discover laborarounds, but we’re sfinishing a message to social media companies to immacutardy up their act.”

While definite platcreates haven’t been named in the law, the rules are awaited to utilize to the appreciates of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok, per the Prime Minister. Sites appreciate YouTube would be exempt, as are messaging platcreates appreciate WhatsApp. 

The legislation doesn’t depict how tech companies will utilize the novel age remercilessions, but those that fall short to do so would face fines of up to $50 million AUS (about $32.4 million US). The law does not insist engagers to upload rulement IDs as part of the verification process. 

Meta condemnd the bill when it was begind in the Australian parliament last week, calling it “inconstant and ineffective.” The company encouraged the Australian rulement to defer passing the legislation, citing “undeclareivety surrounding the ‘reasonable steps’ that insist to be consentn” for impacted platcreates to utilize it. X owner Elon Musk has also slammed the law, alleging that it seems appreciate “a backdoor way to supervise access to the Internet by all Australians.”