Australia introduced a historic bill, aiming to ban social media for children

A new bill in the Parliament was introduced by the Australian government on Thursday. The aim of the bill is to ban the use of social media for children under the age of 16. Under this, there is a proposal to impose a fine of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (about Rs 270 crore) on violations of social media platforms. Australia has become the first country in the world to bring a bill to ban social media for children.

The proposal means that Australia will implement an age verification system, possibly applying biometrics or government-issued identity cards, which would then serve to make it one of the most severe rules ever imposed by a country. There will be no exemption for parental consent or pre-existing accounts.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described the bill as a "historic reform", saying, "We know some children can find ways around it, but we want to send a message to social media companies that they should fulfill their responsibilities.

It would affect the biggest platforms: Meta platforms, which include Instagram and Facebook; ByteDance, or TikTok; Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter; and Snapchat. The government elaborated, though, that one thing it does not mean is children will not be allowed to access messaging, online gaming, and health and education services, including the psychological support platform Headspace, Google Classroom, and YouTube.

The Labor government led by Albanese argued that excessive use of social media is harmful to children's physical and mental health. According to the report, about two-thirds of Australian children aged 14 to 17 have seen extremely harmful content online, including drugs, suicide or self-harm.