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Agence France-Presse

Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said on Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and “onto the footy fields”.
Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Anthony Albanese said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a “scourge”.
The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.
The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16.
Age verification trials are being held over the coming months, the centre-left leader said, though analysts said they doubted it was technically possible to enforce an online age limit.

“I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts,” Albanese said.
“We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm,” he told national broadcaster ABC.
“This is a scourge. We know that there is mental health consequences for what many of the young people have had to deal with,” he said.
Australia’s conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton said he would support the government’s proposed age limit.
“Every day of delay leaves young kids vulnerable to the harms of social media and the time for relying on tech companies to enforce age limits,” he said.
This knee-jerk move … threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world
Daniel Angus, digital media professor
But it is not clear that the technology exists to reliably enforce such bans, said the University of Melbourne’s associate professor in computing and information technology, Toby Murray.
“We already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy,” he said.
Analysts warned that an age limit may not in any case help troubled children.
“This knee-jerk move … threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world,” said Daniel Angus, who leads the digital media research centre at Queensland University of Technology.
“There is logic in establishing boundaries that limit young people’s access,” said Samantha Schulz, a senior sociologist of education at the University of Adelaide.
“However, young people are not the problem and regulating youth misses the more urgent task of regulating irresponsible social media platforms. Social media is an unavoidable part of young people’s lives.”


The prime minister said parents expected a response to online bullying and the access social media gave to harmful material.
“These social media companies think they’re above everyone,” he told a radio interviewer.
“Well, they have a social responsibility and at the moment, they’re not exercising it. And we’re determined to make sure that they do.”
Australia has been at the forefront of global efforts to regulate social media platforms, with its online safety watchdog bumping heads notably with Elon Musk’s X over the content it carries.


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Australia

Australia to ban children as old as 16 from TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, others

Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Australia’s prime minister said on Tuesday. Photo: Shutterstock

Young people use mobile phones while waiting for a train in Hong Kong. Australia’s minimum age limit for social media use could be as high as 16. Photo: Jelly Tse

Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Australia’s prime minister said. Photo: Shutterstock

As Malaysia steps up social media controls, TikTok calls for self-regulation of online content

TikTok is the first social media platform to take a public position on Malaysia’s planned regulatory tightening. Photo: AFP

A woman checks her mobile phone in Kuala Lumpur in July 2023. Malaysia’s government is working on a new law to govern the conduct of social media firms and users. Photo: AFP

Malaysia’s Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil. Photo: AFP

Malaysia scraps loathed internet re-routing plan after public backlash

Students use computers to prepare for exams in Kuala Lumpur. Authorities claimed the DNS policy was necessary to combat online gambling, pornography, copyright violations and financial scams. Photo: AFP

The fallout could undermine Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s fforts to attract tech investments, insiders warn. Photo: Kremlin/Sputnik/EPA-EFE

Internet watchdogs criticised Malaysia’s DNS re-routing plan for its security implications. Photo: Shutterstock

Singapore tells social media sites to block accounts linked to Chinese exile Guo Wengui

An iPhone 15 Pro showing social media application icons. Photo: Shutterstock

Fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui at a news conference in 2018 in New York. Photo: TNS

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lawrence Wong makes a speech after being sworn in at the Istana in Singapore on May 15.  Photo: AP 

Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon greets fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui before introducing him at a news conference in 2018 in New York. Photo: AFP

Elderly people play checkers game in Chinatown in Singapore. Photo: AFP

Philippines sounds alarm over ‘worrisome’ rise in sale of children ads online amid exploitation fears

The Philippines’ Department of Social Welfare and Development says it has found a number of Facebook pages filled with advertisements of children for sale in the country. Photo: Shutterstock

Philippine child rights advocate Amihan Abueva, regional executive director of Child Rights Coalition Asia and the co-founder of anti-child trafficking organisation ECPAT. Photo: Handout

Nearly 500,000 Filipino children were trafficked into sexual exploitation for profit in 2022, according to the International Justice Mission. Photo: Shutterstock

A lack of education and dysfunctional family dynamics are among the factors driving parents to have their children adopted by selling them, says child rights advocate Amihan Abueva. Photo: Shutterstock

How the pandemic brought Asian children to breaking point

The Covid-19 pandemic has left a trial of shattered lives across Asia. Photo: Shutterstock

Thai students flash the three-finger salute during an anti-government protest at a school in Bangkok in October last year. Photo: EPA

Singaporean Doreen Kho with her son Evan Low, who took his own life aged 11. Photo: Handout

News

Asia

Australasia

The minimum age for children to log into social media sites has not been decided, but is expected to be between 14 and 16, the PM said


The minimum age for children to log into social media sites has not been decided, but is expected to be between 14 and 16, the PM said.
