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The laws place the onus on social media platforms – not young people or their parents – to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 years of age from having accounts, and ensures systemic breaches will see platforms face fines of up to $49.5 million.
The minimum age will apply to ‘age-restricted social media platforms’ as defined in the Bill, which includes Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, X and others.
The Minns Labor Government is pleased that we have a national approach to social media bans. It means we have consistent rules across the country.
This follows the joint social media summit held by the NSW Government and the Government of South Australia – the first of its kind.
The Summit in Sydney reached consensus that social media, if left unchecked, uncensored, un-supervised, poses a threat, particularly to young people in our community.
Premier of NSW Chris Minns said, “I want to congratulate the Albanese Government on passing these laws. They are world leading.”
“I’ve said before, social media is this giant global unregulated experiment on children, and we have to change that.”
“The parents I speak to and certainly the evidence acknowledges that social media is doing an enormous amount of harm to young people.”
Read also: ‘Big Tech on notice’: Prioritising safety in platform design and communication
Evidence shows us the links between increases in social media use and greater instances of mental health issues, loss of sleep, less in person interaction, and less practice of social skills.
The social media ban is a welcome measure for many parents, and another of the many measures now in place to help minimise the negative impacts of social media and devices on young people including:
“By making this law, at the very least we empower parents to be able to say no to their kids when it comes to social media because it’s now against the law.”
“It also means kids can focus on being kids, talking to each other face to face, spending time outdoors and not fixated on their screens.”
Adrianne Saplagio is a Content Producer at Comms Room, where she combines her passion for storytelling with her expertise in multimedia content creation. With a keen eye for detail and a knack for engaging audiences, Adrianne has been instrumental in crafting compelling narratives that resonate across various digital platforms.
