SYDNEY, Australia — Australia’s center-left government on Thursday introduced a bill in Parliament that aims to ban social media for children under 16 and proposed fines of up to $32 million for social media platforms for systemic breaches.
Australia plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.
France last year proposed a ban on social media for those under 15, but users were able to avoid the ban with parental consent.
The law would force social media platforms, and not parents or young people, to take reasonable steps to ensure the age-verification protections are in place.
“Social media has a social responsibility ... that’s why we are making big changes to hold platforms to account for user safety,” she said.
Persons:
Anthony Albanese, ByteDance’s TikTok, Elon Musk’s, Snapchat, Albanese, Michelle Rowland, Rowland, ”
Organizations:
”, Liberal Party, Facebook, Google, YouTube, Labor, United
Locations:
SYDNEY, Australia, France, United States