• News
    • Tech News
    • AI
  • Gadgets
    • Apple
    • iPhone
  • Gaming
    • Playstation
    • Xbox
  • Science
    • News
    • Space
  • Streaming
    • Netflix
  • Vehicles
    • Car News
  • Social Media
    • WhatsApp
    • YouTube
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • LADbible
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
TikTok
Snapchat
WhatsApp
Submit Your Content
Australia become first country to ban social media for everyone under 16

Home> News

Published 16:05 28 Nov 2024 GMT

Australia become first country to ban social media for everyone under 16

There are no details yet on how it'll be enforced

Rikki Loftus

Rikki Loftus

Featured Image Credit: izusek/Matt Cardy/Getty Images
Social Media
News
Health

Advert

Advert

Advert

Australia has become the first country in the world to put a blanket ban on social media for everyone under 16.

And to be fair, it’ll save them having to trawl through their own profiles deleting cringy posts when they’re older.

The Australian parliament passed a law this week that will aim to put a stop to children having access to social media.

Children in Australia will no longer be allowed to use social media (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)
Children in Australia will no longer be allowed to use social media (Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Advert

But why? It’s all about protecting young people’s mental health.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, explained that there is a ‘clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians’.

The Senate voted to pass the bill by 34 votes to 19.

The new bill will mean that anyone under the age of 16 will be banned from social media platforms.

Advert

If companies don’t comply, they’ll face fines of up to $32 million.

According to the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, platforms such as Snapchat, X, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit and Facebook will all be included in this ban.

YouTube however isn’t on the list, according to the minister, because of its ‘significant’ educational purposes.

The ban was announced by the Australian prime minister (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)
The ban was announced by the Australian prime minister (Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Advert

So, how exactly do they plan on putting a stop to children making accounts? After all, they could theoretically lie about their age when signing up.

Well, details of the bill are set to be ironed out at a later stage and it won’t come into force for another 12 months yet.

There has been some push back on the bill, with Amnesty International saying that a ‘ban that isolates young people will not meet the government’s objective of improving young people’s lives’.

Even Elon Musk weighed in on his own social media platform X, formerly Twitter, reposting a tweet which read: “Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians.”

Advert

Writing a piece for Guardian Australia, MP Andrew Wilkie shared his own views and explained why he had changed his mind from supporting the ban to opposing it, saying: “The voices of children and young people have been conspicuously missing from most of the debate and commentary.”

The Australian government has argued that the ban is necessary in order to protect the mental health of children in the country.

Introducing the bill last week, Albanese added: “This is a global problem and we want young Australians essentially to have a childhood. We want parents to have peace of mind.”

  • American state preparing to ban social media for anyone under 18 in move that could 'rewrite online childhood'
  • Controversial Texas bill could ban social media for millions of people
  • Joe Rogan shares dystopian theory that social media could transform America into a 'dictatorship'
  • Biohacker Bryan Johnson shares his son's 'erection data' to social media

Choose your content:

7 hours ago
8 hours ago
  • 7 hours ago

    US deals with security breach as AI scammer impersonates Secretary of State Marco Rubio to foreign ministers

    The scammer was sending AI-generated voicemails

    News
  • 7 hours ago

    Investor who sold revolutionary tech for 300 Bitcoin is worth a small fortune decade later

    He's been all in on Bitcoin since he was 12

    News
  • 8 hours ago

    Tragic story of once bustling California town left 90% destroyed by one small piece of metal

    The fire tragically claimed the lives of 85 people

    News
  • 8 hours ago

    Man branded 'dishonest and deceitful' fired after company discovered he was faking over 100 hours of work at home

    A warning to others who think they can slack off when working from home

    News