Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced today plans to ban children under 16 from accessing social media amid growing international criticism that internet giants are not doing enough to protect their vulnerable users.

“It’s a measure for mums and dads. Social media is doing a lot of harm to children and I decided to put an end to it,” Albanese told reporters.

Australian prime minister says social media algorithms present children and teenagers inappropriate content.

“There are things that show up on my phone that I don’t want to see. Imagine a vulnerable 14-year-old,” he explained.

Besides, Albanese also referred to risks to children’s physical and mental health from the excessive use of social media and especially the dangers for girls exposed to images with unreasonable body standards or misogynistic content.

In September, the Australian prime minister announced that he intended to take measures to limit the use of social media by minors, but at the time he did not mention a specific age limit.

Albanezi added that the measure would be presented to state premiers this week before being submitted to parliament for a vote at the end of the month.

What does the bill provide?

The bill will enter into force 12 months after it is approved by the MPs, while will not provide exceptions for children who have the permission of their parents or guardians to get a social media account nor for those who already have accounts.

Tech businesses and social media will be responsible for ensuring their users are over 16 or face penalties.

“The responsibility does not belong to the parents or to the young people. There will be no penalties for users,” Albanese stressed.

Meta, the subsidiary of Instagram and Facebook, has announced that it will implement “any age limit” the government “wishes to impose”.

But Antigoni Davies, Facebook’s global security manager, said Australia would have to think seriously about how these restrictions would be implemented.

However, some experts also doubt whether it is technically possible to impose such a measure.

“We already know that existing age identification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent or compromise user privacy,” noted Toby Murray of the University of Melbourne.

Age limit in many countries

Many countries and regions have decided to adopt an age limit for accessing social media.

In the US state of Florida, a law came into effect in January that prohibits children under the age of 14 from obtaining an account on these platforms.

Spain passed a law in June banning children under 16 from accessing social media.

In both cases, the method of confirming the age of users has not yet been determined.

In France, a law passed in 2023 set the age of “digital maturity” at 15, but it has not yet entered into force pending a decision by the European Commission on whether it is in line with European law.

China is restricting minors’ access to social media from 2021 and requiring users to verify their age with their ID.

Furthermore, children under 14 cannot use Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, for more than 40 minutes a day, while the time that children and teenagers can spend online is limited.