Due to the potential risks social media use poses to children’s physical and mental health, Australia announced on Tuesday that it plans to implement laws this year to prohibit children from using these platforms.
The centre-left government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that an age verification trial would be launched in the coming months.
“I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts. We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm,” said Albanese.
The age range for the ban was not mentioned by him, although he did say he was “looking at the range between 14 and 16.”
Albanese expressed his concerns on the effects of cyberbullying on children’s mental health as well as their easy access to potentially harmful content on social media.
The action was taken in response to a July request from Australia’s eSafety authority for internet companies to develop an industry-wide code outlining how they will prevent children from viewing inappropriate content, or else the industry would be forced to follow it.
Government attempts to limit adolescents’ access to social media have been impeded by technological advancements, including location-deceiving virtual private networks and legal obstacles.
“This is a global issue that governments around the globe are trying to deal with… we know that it’s not simple and it’s not easy; otherwise, governments would have responded before,” Albanese said.
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