This is a historic win for the Australian government. In response, California passed landmark new social media regulations to ensure the safety of young people online. Anika Wells, the Communications Minister, announced that over 4.7 million under-16 social media accounts had been deactivated, removed, or restricted since the laws took effect on December 10. Wells called this action a “groundswell victory,” a “huge victory.” He thinks it proves just how successful the government’s new strategy is at keeping children safe online.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed his approval for the plan. He highlighted the governor or government’s important role in the public arena focused on the dangers that social media platforms create for young people. This recent data indicates that the new restrictions are having a real effect just weeks after they went into effect.
Even with the government’s rosy projections, not everyone is drinking the happy juice. Today, Digital Rights Watch has echoed that concern ahead of an attempt to introduce an artificial age limit to social media accounts. Lizzie O’Shea, the chair of the organization, hit the nail on the head. She pointed out that just counting deleted accounts doesn’t really reflect whether the ban is a success or a failure. Instead, she called for deeper regulation of social media companies instead of just passing age prohibitions.
Alongside the new statutes, state officials rolled out an education campaign focused on social media age restrictions. Three weeks after the campaign released, the eSafety website experienced more than one million hits. This increase underscored that the Australian public was desperately Googling to understand what these changes meant.
“The number of accounts deleted is not the measure of the success or failure of the ban,” O’Shea stated, underscoring her organization’s concerns about broader implications for youth wellbeing.
It’s in response to experts’ concerns about the effectiveness of simply shutting down accounts. As Timothy Koskie so clearly pointed out, that’s the wrong question. Many people operate several accounts on different platforms, complicating the challenge of figuring out whether new state laws are being followed. He noted, “As far as the top line item of protecting youth from the risks of social media, it might be a little bit of a bridge to say that shutting down the accounts means protecting the youth.” Koskie recommended that robust data is needed to get a better picture of how these regulations are playing out in practice and their actual effects.
The government is clear that we must continue to monitor the long-term impacts of these actions. Wells recognized that as encouraging as the early results are, much remains to be done. She remarked, “Change doesn’t happen overnight. These early signs show it’s important we’ve acted to make this change.”
