As of last week, children under the age of 16 in Australia are now banned from using a long list of popular social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and, perhaps most notably, TikTok
The law requires these companies to identify and deactivate accounts of users under 16, and to prevent them from setting up new accounts in the future. Failure to comply can result in fines of up to $33 million.
Since it was proposed a year ago, the ban has drawn complaints from tech companies who argued that determining users’ ages is somehow beyond their engineers’ capabilities. There was also scattered pushback from civil liberties groups concerned about privacy and free speech.
But the government remained firm, stating it was committed to its goal of combating “design features that encourage [kids] to spend more time on screens, while also serving up content that can harm their health and wellbeing.”
It was hard for them to do anything else after a study they commissioned earlier this year revealed the following disturbing trends:
- 96% of children aged 10-15 in Australia use social media
- 7 out of 10 had been exposed to harmful content.
- More than half had been the victim of cyberbullying.
- 1 in 7 experienced grooming-type behavior.
The natural follow-up question for Americans is: Would such a ban be legally feasible in our country? (Putting aside, for now, the political appetite for such regulation, which is a different issue altogether.)
Last January, I investigated this question for The New Yorker. For this piece, I interviewed Meg Jones, a colleague of mine at Georgetown’s Center for Digital Ethics, who works at the intersection of technology and law. I asked her to explain how regulators decide when it’s appropriate to ban something that harms kids.
I recommend reading the full article to learn more about the legal issues at play. But for those who are looking with a wistful eye toward our friends down under, I’ll reproduce Jones’s prediction. “I think age verification is going to pass constitutional scrutiny this year, and we’re going to see a wave of state laws restricting social media for kids,” she told me. “Or maybe that is just my wishful thinking.” I’m wishing, too.
And no one was surprised.
As an Australian kid, I was exposed to porn when I was 12 or 13 because another older kid had a video on their phone at school. Sexual harassment from a classmate happened over MSN messenger by age 14.
Kids weren’t safe online 18 years ago when I was in grade nine, and unsurprisingly they’re still not safe online now.
But the fact is these kids wouldn’t be online so much if their parents set limits or actively engaged with their children. Instead, they’ve pawned off the job of raising their kids to a device and now act shocked by the results.
It’s a hard situation. I don’t think kids should be on social media (and, really, should anyone?) But age verification is kind of scary as well. I wish there was a better way to protect kids, because I (Gen Z) was exposed to a lot of dangerous stuff and groomed on the Internet as a kid.
I’ll sacrifice my own privacy to protect kids. But, also, as a queer person, I’m scared that our current government is going to use childhood protection laws as an excuse to spy on LGBT people/people with differing political views and not actually protect kids. After all…there are governments who have enacted increased censorship to “protect kids”
This is the right move. China serves a completely different version of “TikTok” than they serve the world. Why do you think that is? They made that cancer of an app but decided to ban it from their own people? It’s because they know it’s cancer to the society. As much joke as the term “brainrot” is, it’s truly alarming how it quite literally rots your brain. Growing up with such exposure to short form, rapid fire stimulus cannot possibly do any good for human. Every developed country needs to follow with Australia’s lead. I honestly was surprised it didn’t come from Norway or Denmark, one of those north Western European countries. Regardless, it’s a step forward towards removing this cancer from children.