Australia Set To Become First Country In The World To Ban Social Media For Kids Under 16 By Law

Social media will soon be banned in Australia for kids under the age of 16 after the bill passed the Australian Senate on Thursday. In what will be a world-first law, platforms including Instagram, X, Reddit, TikTok, Facebook, and Snapchat will be liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

According to the Associated Press, Australia’s House of Representatives has yet to endorse opposition amendments made in the Senate, but that is nothing but a formality given that the Australian government has agreed they will pass.

Once passed, social media platforms will have one year to work out how they can implement the ban before penalties are enforced.

Critics of the legislation believe that the ban on social media could isolate children who use the platforms for support.

“This policy will hurt vulnerable young people the most, especially in regional communities and especially the LGBTQI community, by cutting them off,” Sen. David Shoebridge told the Senate.

The major parties who support the legislation are simply looking to not have underage children on social media.

“The core focus of this legislation is simple: It demands that social media companies take reasonable steps to identify and remove underage users from their platforms, Sen. Maria Kovacic explained to the Senate. “This is a responsibility these companies should have been fulfilling long ago, but for too long they have shirked these responsibilities in favor of profit.”

TikTok and many other social media apps will soon be banned for kids under 16 in Australia. (Photo by Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)

Will A Ban On Social Media Help Kids In Australia?

In theory, this law makes plenty of sense. Social media can not only be a dangerous place for anyone, not only kids, but it is also a cesspool filled with things that the overwhelming majority of people would agree that kids under 16 years old have no business seeing. 

Having said that, every phone has access to this thing called the Internet. Nothing is stopping these same kids who own a phone from clicking on the Safari app.

While everyone can agree that social media usage has its harms on multiple levels, banning it entirely for kids under 16 feels like government overreach.

OutKick’s Ian Miller explained it perfectly when he wrote about this situation earlier in the week:

“At some point, governments have to accept that not every negative outcome is preventable by political bans. Of course, children shouldn’t spend their lives on social media, and the influence of apps like TikTok or Instagram has grown exponentially. Sometimes that leads to unfortunate things happening,” Miller wrote.

“But parents have a responsibility to be involved in their children’s lives. The government shouldn’t be in the business of policing access to social media, parents should.”

Truer words have never been written.