Australia is taking on powerful tech companies with its under-16 social media ban, but will the rest of the world follow? The country’s enactment of the policy is being watched closely by politicians, safety campaigners and parents. A number of other countries are not far behind, with Europe in particular hoping to replicate Australia, while the UK is keeping more of a watchful interest.
Europe
Denmark has said it will ban social media for under-15s, with the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, saying mobile phones and social media are “stealing our children’s childhood”. The policy could become law next year.
Norway is bringing in a minimum age limit of 15. The prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, has said the country must protect children from the “power of the algorithms”.
Ireland is introducing a digital wallet to verify the age and identity of social media users. The media minister, Patrick O’Donovan, said this month an Australia-style ban was “one of the things that we are holding in reserve”.
In Spain, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has called on parliament to pass a bill raising the minimum age for using social media to 16.
In France, the president, Emmanuel Macron, has threatened to ban social media for under-15s and a parliamentary commission has also recommended such a move, including an overnight “digital curfew” for 15- to 18-year-olds.
The government in the Netherlands, meanwhile, has advised parents to block their children from social media until they are 15.
In the EU, the European parliament has passed a non-binding resolution, demanding under-16s be banned from using social media unless their parents decide otherwise. The resolution warned of the “addictive” nature of social media but is non-binding, meaning it will not become law. The EU already has legislation that enshrines digital safety in the form of the Digital Services Act, but an appetite remains to take oversight further.
The Danish MEP behind the resolution, Christel Schaldemose, said she would continue to push for continent-wide regulation, although that ultimately requires a three-way cooperation between member states, the EU parliament and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm.
The MEP said she was “not giving up” until tougher regulations were in place. “A strong age limit is a good starting point,” she said.
Ursula von der Leyen, the commission’s president, has promised to establish a panel of experts who will advise on the best approach for protecting children. Announcing the panel in September, she said parents were drowning in the “tsunami of big tech flooding their family homes”.
UK
In the UK the Labour government has not ruled out a ban, saying “nothing is off the table” but any ban must be “based on robust evidence”.
Last year momentum gathered behind a private member’s bill (legislation proposed by an individual lawmaker, not the government), imposing restrictions on under-16s using social media. But the bill was ultimately watered down, albeit with a government commitment to research the issue further.
The Molly Rose Foundation, a charity established by the family of Molly Russell, a teenager who killed herself after viewing harmful online content, is concerned that an age ban would do nothing to make social networks safer. It said this week that teenagers living under an under-16 ban could face a “cliff edge” of harm on unregulated platforms when they turn 16.
Beeban Kidron, the crossbench peer and influential online safety campaigner, said a ban was not a “magic bullet” but could spur tech companies to do more to protect children.
“The Australian ban is a response to the failure of the tech sector to design products and services that are safe and age appropriate for children. It represents a profound challenge to Silicon Valley – by insisting that they design their products for keeping our kids safe – or leave them the heck alone,” she said.
Meanwhile, the UK government will monitor whether its new set of digital guardrails, under the Online Safety Act, have the desired impact on child safety.
US
In the US, social media restrictions are being brought in at state level. Utah has introduced legislation requiring under-18s to have parental consent to use social media, while also restricting social media use at night without similar permission.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, has signed a bill banning under-14s from joining social media, although the legislation – as with other similar state laws around the US – is subject to legal wrangling over whether it breaches the first amendment right to free speech.
Virginia, meanwhile, has passed a law limiting under-16s to one hour of social media access per day, with any further access requiring parental permission. Georgia, Tennessee and Louisiana have also passed bills requiring parental consent for under-16s to open social media accounts.
Rahm Emanuel, the former White House chief of staff under Barack Obama, is considering a presidential run and has said the US should follow Australia’s lead. Right now, a US-wide ban seems unlikely amid a Washington gridlock. Ted Cruz, the Republican senator, has teamed up with Democrat peers in Washington to introduce a bill formally banning under-13s from social media and barring feeding “algorithmically targeted content” to under-17s. The bill has not become law.
Arturo Béjar, a former senior engineer and consultant at Meta, who blew the whistle on online safety at the Facebook and Instagram owner, told the Guardian that nationwide legislation was still some way off.
He said: “It is not clear how legislation is going to move forward here. The US has many bereaved parents, and bipartisan support, but turning that into legislation is taking a long time.”
Elsewhere
Malaysia plans to ban social media for under-16s starting from next year and Brazil has raised the minimum age for Instagram to the same level.
At the United Nations, the attitude is more cautious. Unicef, the UN agency for children, has warned that social media bans carry risks and “may even backfire”. It said internet platforms can be a lifeline for isolated or marginalised children and that regulation should not be a substitute for tech companies investing in safety.
But as the actions of Australia and other governments show, states around the world are no longer willing to wait.
