Australia passes landmark social media ban for under 16s

Australia passes tough rules banning under 16s from social media, despite objections from firms and teens.

MELBOURNE:

Australian lawmakers passed landmark rules to ban under 16s from social media on Thursday, approving one of the world's toughest crackdowns on popular sites like Facebook, Instagram and X.

The legislation ordering social media firms to take "reasonable steps" to prevent young teens from having accounts was passed in the Senate with 34 votes in favour and 19 against.

The firms -- who face fines of up to Aus$50 million (US$32.5 million) for failing to comply -- have described the laws as "vague", "problematic" and "rushed".

The new rules will now return to the lower house -- where lawmakers already backed the bill on Wednesday -- for one final approval before it is all but certain to become law.

Speaking during the Senate debate, Greens politician Sarah Hanson-Young said the ban would not "make social media safer for young people".

She said it was "devastating" that young people were "finding themselves addicted to these dangerous algorithms".

Centre-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, eyeing an election early next year, has enthusiastically championed the new rules and rallied Aussie parents to get behind it.

In the run up to the vote, he painted social media as "a platform for peer pressure, a driver of anxiety, a vehicle for scammers and, worst of all, a tool for online predators".

He wanted young Australians "off their phones and onto the footy and cricket field, the tennis and netball courts, in the swimming pool".

But young social media users, like 12-year-old Angus Lydom, are not impressed.

"I'd like to keep using it. And it'll be a weird feeling to not have it, and be able to talk to all my friends at home," he told AFP.

Many are likely to try to find ways around it.