Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with 12-year-old Flossie Brodribb when they met in Canberra. They got into her most recent work, which focused on social media and how it affects children. The meeting featured Brodribb’s journey deep into her own parents’ assertions that social media is harmful to young users. This exchange came at the same time that Australia was proclaiming a new social media prohibition. The wide-reaching ban will limit children under 16’s access to various platforms, social media or otherwise.
The ban extends to all big social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, TikTok, X (Twitter), Reddit, Kick and YouTube. This game-changing policy goes into effect on December 10, and it will be up to tech companies to prioritize and enforce the age restriction. Albanese emphasized the importance of empowering parents to engage their children in discussions about social media access and its implications.
A Community-Driven Initiative
Albanese touted the initiative as a move to address the voices of communities tired of social media’s harmful effects on young people’s mental health. He stressed that this decision is not solely up to the federal government. Rather, it’s a capitulation to the public outcry for social media companies to act responsibly.
“This isn’t a debate that’s come from government making a decision and then telling their community this is what must happen: it’s the reverse here, this is the community demanding an appropriate government response and demanding that social media companies show social responsibility.” – Anthony Albanese
Through her project, Brodribb interviewed a wide variety of pre- and post-natal experts, like neuroscientist Dr. Lila Landowski, and child psychologist Cassie Xintavalonis. They dug into their data to understand how social media use is connected to increasing anxiety and loneliness among youth. They looked at connections to depression, eating disorders, and body dysmorphia.
With the ban date looming, Albanese said he felt good about tech companies working in cooperation to…He cautioned that failure to comply would result in significant penalties. Businesses could be hit with penalties of as much as $49 million per firm for failing to eliminate underage consumers from their networks.
“And they were right, as much as I hate to say it … social media has lots of impacts I wouldn’t want to be exposed to you.” – Flossie Brodribb
Enforcement and Compliance
The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, will be responsible for enforcement, free from ministerial control. Albanese promised that she would keep her at arm’s length from government meddling while making sure that the new regulations were followed.
“But we want social media companies to do their best to comply with the law, and they have to show that they’re going to best endeavours to do so.” – Anthony Albanese
He likened this new initiative to the UK-wide ban on mobile phones in school. He even defended the longer-term effort saying that it would improve student achievement in the end.
The ban’s final list of platforms was only announced last week. That will only be true until it isn’t when new platforms come onto the scene or current ones are transformed. Albanese added that other jurisdictions, from the European Union to New Zealand, are watching how Australia implements these reforms with great interest.
“Just as the banning of phones in school classrooms by many state governments hasn’t on day one led to perfect compliance, now it’s just accepted that there are improved educational outcomes, improved behaviour, improved social outcomes as a result.” – Anthony Albanese
Future Implications
He thinks that the best path for real change will be through greater voluntary compliance, both by tech companies and the communities that use new technology. By fostering an environment where families can discuss social media’s effects openly, he anticipates a gradual shift in attitudes towards responsible usage.
He believes that true change can occur through voluntary compliance from both tech companies and the community at large. By fostering an environment where families can discuss social media’s effects openly, he anticipates a gradual shift in attitudes towards responsible usage.
“That’s the history of social change for common good.” – Anthony Albanese
