CANBERRA: Australia’s parliament passed a law on Thursday to ban social media for children aged under 16 after days of heated debate, setting a standard for other countries to follow in a global push to curb the power of Big Tech.
The new law was drafted in response to what the Labor prime minister, Anthony Albanese, says is a “clear, causal link between the rise of social media and the harm [to] the mental health of young Australians.”
On Thursday, parliament’s upper house, the Senate, passed a bill by 34 votes to 19 banning children under 16 from social media platforms.
The law, expected to take effect in November 2025, sets some of the toughest social media controls in the world and will force platforms to take reasonable steps to ensure age-verification protections are in place.
After a parliamentary session that went into the night, the country’s Senate, or upper house of parliament, voted to pass the law after the centre-left Labor government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese won support from the conservative opposition.
The Senate’s approval of the law is the final legislative hurdle after the lower house, or House of Representatives, passed the bill on Wednesday.
Australia plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce the ban. The trial will run for several months and its findings will be reviewed by mid-2025.
Under the law, companies could be fined up to A$49.5 million ($32 million) for breaches.
In submissions to parliament, Alphabet’s Google and Meta said the ban should be delayed until the age-verification trial finishes, expected in mid-2025.
Bytedance’s TikTok said the bill needed more consultation, while Elon Musk’s X argued the proposed law might hurt children’s human rights.
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Academics, politicians and advocacy groups have warned that the ban – as envisioned by the government – could backfire, driving teenagers to the dark web, or making them feel more isolated.
The online safety amendment (social media minimum age) bill bans social media platforms from allowing users under 16 to access their services, threatening companies with fines of up to AU$50m (US$32m) if they fail to comply.
However, it contains no details about how it will work, only that the companies will be expected to take reasonable steps to ensure users are aged 16 or over. The details will come later, through the completion of a trial of age-assurance technology in mid-2025. The bill won’t come into force for another 12 months.
