Australia approved the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 on November 28 to restrict social media for children under the age of 16, termed a “world-first” set of measures.
- The bill puts the onus on social media companies to prevent children from accessing their platforms.
- It says companies can be fined up to $32 million if they fail to do so. A trial of methods to enforce it will start in January with the ban to take effect in a year.
- The Social Media Minimum Age bill sets Australia up as a test case for a growing number of governments which have legislated or said they plan to legislate an age restriction on social media amid concern about its mental health impact on young people.
- One of the key concerns around such a Bil has been user age verification.
- Currently, social media websites such as Instagram require users to provide their date of birth and meet the age criteria to create an account. However, companies do not check if this information is correct.
