Australia will set the minimum age for social media use between 14 and 16 under a bill that will come into effect this year, Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced on Tuesday, September 10.
“I want to see children away from their screens and [plutôt] on football fields, swimming pools and tennis courts »said.
“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is damaging to society.”he said again on the national channel ABC.
“Whip”
Rate these sites as “whip” For young people, he said that the federal law setting this limit will be applied in 2024, specifying that the minimum age to connect to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok must be set between 14 and 16 years. An age verification test will be carried out at the time of connection in the coming months, before the text comes into force, added Albanese. Asked several times on the subject, he said that he was personally in favour of a minimum age of 16 years.
Conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton has expressed support for the government’s bill. “Every day late leaves young children vulnerable to social media threats”declared.
Analysts, however, believe that an age limit will not help socially disadvantaged young people. For Daniel Angus, a professor at Queensland University of Technology, the government’s plan is ” careless “ AND “thoughtless” because it comes even before the final report of a parliamentary inquiry into the effects of social media on Australian society.
This project “it undermines research 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 digital media research center. The law could redirect many children to “lower quality online spaces” in “eliminate important means of social connection”still regrets.
Unreliable age verification methods
According to Toby Murray, an associate professor of computer science and information technology at the University of Melbourne, it is not even clear whether the technical means to enforce such a limit exist at this point. “The government is testing age verification technology. But we already know that current methods are unreliable, too easy to bypass or risky for users’ privacy.says.
The Prime Minister, for his part, maintains that parents expect a response to online bullying and a way to control access to dangerous content posted on social media.
In the same vein, the US Senate, dominated by Democrats, approved a bill in July setting the minimum age for using social media at 13, but it still needs to be voted on by the Republican-majority House of Representatives.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron declared himself in favour of banning mobile phones in June. “before the age of 11” and social networks “before the age of 15”.
