(Sydney) Australia will set the minimum age for using social media between 14 and 16, under a bill set to become law this year, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday, saying he would prefer to see young people “on the playing fields” rather than on their screens.
Calling the sites a “scourge” for young people, he said the federal law establishing the limit would be implemented in 2024, specifying that the minimum age to connect to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok should be set between 14 and 16 years old.
An age verification test at login will be conducted in the coming months before the text comes into force, Mr Albanese added.
“I want to see children away from their screens and [plutôt] “on football pitches, in swimming pools and on tennis courts,” said the centre-left Prime Minister.
“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is hurting society,” he said on national broadcaster ABC.
Asked several times about the subject, Anthony Albanese indicated that he personally supported a minimum age of 16.
Conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton has given his support to the government’s bill.
“Every day of delay leaves young children vulnerable to threats from social media,” he said.
“Thoughtless”
Analysts, however, believe that an age limit will not help socially disadvantaged young people.
Daniel Angus, a professor at Queensland University of Technology, said the government’s plan was “reckless” and “ill-considered” because it came before the final report of a parliamentary inquiry into the effects of social media on Australian society.
This project “undermines inquiry and the principles of deliberative democracy and threatens to cause serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful and healthy participation in the digital world,” continues the expert, who heads the university’s research center on digital media.
The law could redirect many children to “lower quality online spaces” by “removing important means of social connection,” he further laments.
According to Toby Murray, associate professor of computer science and information technology at the University of Melbourne, it is not even certain that the technical means to enforce such a limit exist today.
“The government is experimenting with age verification technology. But we already know that current methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent or risky for users’ privacy,” he says.
The Prime Minister, for his part, maintains that parents are waiting for a response to online harassment and a way to control access to dangerous content published on social networks.
In the same vein, a bill setting the minimum age for social media at 13 was approved in July by the United States Senate, but has yet to be voted on by the House of Representatives.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron said in June that he was in favour of banning mobile phones “before the age of 11” and social networks “before the age of 15”.