This coming Wednesday, Australia will add a ban on social media that could be a blueprint for other countries to follow.
Starting December 10, all Australians under the age of 16 will be banned from social media. The list of currently banned platforms includes Tiktok, Facebook, Instagram, threads, x, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, the kicker.
Discord, roblox, pinterest, whatsapp and many more were excluded from the ban, but will continue to be monitored. AI Chatbots, which have been under intense scrutiny around the world for a lack of security that has allegedly led to the death of some teenagers, ended up being banned after Sorai’s Sora was on the regulator’s radar.
Children and young people spend the formative years of their lives glued to screens. In a recent study, a British youth charity found that 76% of young people spent their free time looking at screens, and that 34% reported feeling high or very high feelings of loneliness.
Meanwhile, the negative psychological and even social health effects (and its addictive properties) on youth and children are well documented. In many studies, increased social media use among children is linked to depression, anxiety, attention deficit, body image issues and poor sleep quality. Australian regulators have also raised concerns about Social Media enabling peer pressure and the prevalence of cyberbullying.
Psychologist Jonathan Haidt says the abundance of Smartphones and puberty during puberty, the most critical and fatal point and the re-emergence of these fake 1995.
Here’s how the Australia Social Media Ban will work:
The ban will be enforced by tech companies using Age Assurance methods such as legal identification and facial / voice analysis, regardless of how long users have been active, or whether they are active (or rather, working and absent) coincides with school hours.
If the account is considered minor, it will be disabled. If the technology company is found to be allowing accounts under the plane under the radar, the Australian government will hit it with a fine of up to 49.5 Australian dollars, which is around $33 million.
Will Australia’s social media networks be effective?
If you’re wondering how well these measures will keep kids away from social media, you’re not alone. The BBC recently spoke to the youth who have already revealed age verification technology. Many young people who are banned are also likely to turn to VPNs to avoid it, similar to citizens of other countries with social media bans in the past.
Many young people across the country are also rising up against the law. Two 15-year-old Australians have even filed a Constitutional challenge on the grounds that the ban infringes on Teens’ freedom to communicate about political and political issues. “
Potential pitfalls will be part of the global learning curve. The ban is the first of its kind and has been widely referred to as a test for similar measures around the world, some of which are already underway.
Denmark, Malaysia, Norway and the European Parliament have recently called or announced some plans to introduce a ban similar to the Australian law.
The obstacle that stands in the way of the global distribution of this ban is Big Tech, which is not very happy about the ban, and that the largest gathering of Americans is President Trump. Trump has yet to voice his opinion on this particular issue, but he has historically positioned Silicon Valley against what he and the industry see as discriminatory practices at American tech companies.
“I’m not intimidated by big technology because I understand the ethical implications of what we’re doing,” Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells told the BBC earlier this week. “We are happy to be the first, we are proud to be the first, and we stand ready to help any other festivals that want to do these things.”
