Australia to penalize tech firms over social media ban for minors

Social media companies that fail to prevent Australians younger than 16 from using their service will face fines worth tens of millions of dollars under world-first laws.

Australia's governing Labor Party on Thursday introduced legislation to parliament to introduce a minimum age limit of 16 years to use social media.

Under the legislation, the onus to enforce the minimum age limit will fall on social media companies rather than children, parents or guardians.

Social media companies that systematically fail to enforce the age limit will face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($32.5 million).

"This is about protecting young people, not punishing or isolating them, and letting parents know we're in their corner when it comes to supporting their children's health and wellbeing," Minister for Communications Michelle Rowland told parliament upon tabling the legislation.

"This bill seeks to set a new normative value in society, that accessing social media is not the defining feature of growing up in Australia," said Rowland.

She said that online gaming would be exempt from the ban because it is already regulated by the age classification scheme and including them would create unnecessary overlap.

Messaging services will also be excluded. Rowland said that messaging app users are not exposed to an algorithmic curation of content and psychological manipulation to encourage near endless engagement.

"Further, the inclusion of messaging apps could have wider consequences, such as making communication within families harder," she said.

The federal opposition has flagged support for the legislation, meaning it is set to pass both houses of parliament with a strong majority of votes.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese previously said that the new laws will take effect at least 12 months after they pass parliament.

The government has not specified how social media users' ages will be verified but said it would be informed by a trial of age verification technology that was funded in May's federal budget.

The minimum age limit will be enforced by the office of the government's eSafety Commissioner.

(Cover via CFP)