Australia’s prime minister said Friday he wants to ensure the nation’s ban on social media for children is as robust as possible, following a new study showing the world’s first such law has done little to curb teen use in its first six months.
The government intends to put the legislation through rigorous testing. The law prohibits platforms such as Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube from creating accounts for anyone under the age of 16.
“What we want to do is to make sure that the laws are as strong as possible and that they will withstand any legal challenges which are made,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Albanese added that a major priority would be ensuring the eSafety Commission — the country’s internet watchdog — has enough authority to carry out its responsibilities. He did not elaborate on what specific actions the government plans to take, and the regulator declined to offer any comment.
The Australian experiment is being closely followed by nations around the world that are grappling with concerns about the mental and physical wellbeing of young people. Britain, for instance, announced this month that it plans to go even further, extending similar restrictions to gaming and live-streaming platforms as well.
The eSafety Commission and Communications Minister Anika Wells have indicated they are preparing legal action against several platforms. Companies found to have systematically failed to enforce the ban could face fines of up to A$49.5 million, or roughly $34 million U.S.
Reddit has filed a High Court challenge against the ban, with preliminary hearings still underway. The company was not immediately reachable for comment Friday.
When the ban took effect last December, early reports suggested millions of accounts had been shut down. However, parents and researchers have since noted that teen social media habits appear largely unchanged.
A study published this week in the British Medical Journal found that 85% of Australians between the ages of 12 and 15 were still active on social media three months after the ban went into effect. The research was based on a study of 408 adolescents.
According to the paper, two-thirds of underage users got around the restrictions by either claiming to be older than 16 or submitting a selfie that the platform accepted as proof of being over the age limit.
“Despite the intent of the (ban) to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents,” the study concluded.
