Tech companies will face fines if they fail to respect age restrictions on their services

The Australian parliament has approved a bill on barring children under 16 from using social media. The Senate passed the legislation on Thursday, after the House of Representatives did so the day before. 

According to Australian public broadcaster ABC, the Social Media Minimum Age Bill defines an “age-restricted social media platform” as a service with a “sole purpose, or a significant purpose” to enable “online social interaction” between people, who can “post material” on the service. The legislation does not name any specific service, however.

Platforms that do not take “reasonable steps” to bar people under 16 would face fines of up to $50 million ($32.5 million USD). The new law will fully take effect in 12 months.

The government has argued that the law is necessary to better protect children’s wellbeing.

“Social media is doing harm to our children, and today as a direct result of our legislation passed through the parliament… parents can have a different discussion with their young ones,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters. “We’ve got your back is our message to Australian parents.” 

The prime minister dismissed concerns over the bill’s implementation. “We don’t argue that its implementation will be perfect, just like the alcohol ban for [those] under 18 doesn’t mean that someone under 18 never has access. But we know that it’s the right thing to do,” he said.

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Google and Meta have urged Australia to delay the bill until the age-verification trial is over.

“We are concerned about the process which rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people,” Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said in a statement on Thursday.

Meta added that it expects “productive consultation on all rules associated with the bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens.”

Snapchat’s parent company, Snap, released a statement, saying that “there are many unanswered questions about how this law will be implemented in practice.” The company also promised to “engage closely” with the Australian government.

Some Australian politicians and activists have criticized the legislation as incomplete. Senator Matt Canavan argued that the law “fails to address privacy concerns.”

“The attempt to ban kids from social media will be ineffective but worse it may undermine proper efforts to reign in the harms of social media,” Canavan wrote on X. 

Many countries have been looking for ways to ensure that children navigate online platforms in a safe manner. In March 2024, the US state of Florida banned children under 14 from social media and required those aged 14 and 15 to get parental consent.