Australia’s Prime Minister is playing down concerns when it comes to his tough social media ban for children.
Photo: ShutterstockAustralia’s landmark bill on banning social media for children under 16 will see a new verification system and a requirement to then destroy the data used to confirm ages of users.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, leading the country’s centre-left government, previously proposed fining social media platforms of up to A$49.5 million (US$32 million) for failing to comply with the legislation.
Australia plans to ban children from social media
Albanese said on Monday that social media firms would be required to destroy personal data used to verify ages of users, as part of what the Australian government says is a world-leading ban on children using the services.
Australia plans to try out an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.
“There will be very strong and strict privacy requirements to protect people’s personal information, including an obligation to destroy information provided once age has been verified,” Albanese told parliament on Monday.
The laws would affect Meta Platforms’ Instagram and Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok and Elon Musk’s X and Snapchat.
They have been criticised by figures including Musk, who said on Friday the legislation was a back-door attempt to control access to the internet for all Australians.
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The proposals are the highest age limit set by any country, and would have no exemption for parental consent or pre-existing accounts.
The government has said it aims to pass the bill into law by the end of the parliamentary year on Thursday, fast-tracking it through the upper and lower houses of parliament.