Australia’s Prime Minister wants to ban social media for children

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has promised to introduce laws that might forestall youngsters below a sure age from utilizing social media. reported that Albanese issued his assertion in a TV interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corp. (ABC).

Albanese says the Australian authorities would begin its social media initiative by testing age verification know-how someday this yr. He additionally didn’t state a particular age restrict however estimated he’d just like the ban to be for youngsters youthful than 14-16 as a result of “we all know that social media is inflicting social hurt.”

Meta issued a press release in response to the PM’s proposal noting that and have already got a minimal age requirement of 13 years for customers. The social media firm additionally famous it desires to empower younger folks to profit from social media with parental controls and monitoring “as a substitute of simply slicing off entry.”

Lawmakers within the US and different international locations have advised and tried to implement a federal age restrict on social media entry. Final yr, launched two payments to Congress that might prohibit youngsters below 16 from utilizing social media. The state of Utah additionally handed legal guidelines in 2023 requiring teenagers to have parental consent and supply a duplicate of an ID as a substitute of simply inputting their birthday to entry their accounts. The next yr, the ID necessities.

Social media use has develop into a higher well being difficulty as specialists elevate issues about its results on youthful customers’ psychological properly being. An open letter signed by supported US Surgeon Normal Vivek Murthy’s proposal to require social media web sites to publish seen well being warnings the way in which that cigarette makers are required to take action on their merchandise’ packaging.