Australia’s prime minister said he was keen to ensure the country’s social media ban for children was as strong as possible, as a new study found that the measure — the first of its kind and now six months old — had little impact on teen use.
The government plans to stress-test the law which bans platforms like Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube from giving accounts to under-16s, reports RTE.
“What we want to do is to make sure that the laws are as strong as possible and that they will withstand any legal challenges which are made,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
He added that one key focus would be ensuring the Safety Commission, the country’s internet regulator, was sufficiently empowered to do its job, reports RTE.
Mr Albanese did not give further details about what steps the government would take and the regulator declined to comment.
Australia’s pioneering experiment is being closely watched by countries around the world seeking to replicate it amid concern about youth mental and physical health, reports RTE.
Britain, for example, this month announced planned restrictions that go further, as gaming and live-streaming platforms will also be affected.
The eSafety Commission and Communications Minister Anika Wells said they are preparing legal action against multiple platforms, which face a maximum fine of A$49.5 million if they are found to have systemically failed to uphold the ban, reports RTE.
Reddit has launched a High Court challenge of the ban, which is still in preliminary hearings.
When Australia’s ban went live last December, there were early reports that it had shut down millions of accounts, but parents said and studies have shown that teen social media use is little changed, reports RTE.
A paper published in the British Medical Journal this week said 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using social media three months after the ban took effect, according to a study of 408 adolescents.
Two-thirds of underage users stayed online by self-declaring an age over 16 or posting a selfie that the platform accepted as over 16, the paper said, reports RTE.
“Despite the intent of the ban to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents,” it said, reports RTE.
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