Australia’s social media ban for youths took effect Wednesday, a landmark move that’s drawn global attention at a time governments are increasingly enacting rules to shield minors from toxic content and cyberbullying.
The law, passed last year, mandates services such as ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok and Meta Platforms Inc.’s Instagram keep under-16s off their platforms or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million). Australia becomes the world’s first democracy to undertake such a crackdown in response to growing concerns about social media’s harms.
It’s likely to be the first of many. Policymakers in Indonesia, Denmark, Brazil and other nations are also moving to rein in Big Tech, which counts young users as a key demographic since they are likely to fuel future growth. Additional platforms affected in Australia include Snap Inc.’s Snapchat, Alphabet Inc.’s YouTube, Reddit Inc. and more.
All have said they will comply, though many have voiced opposition to rules they say were rushed through and risk pushing children into more dangerous corners of the internet. Still, Reddit said this week it’s launching new safety features globally for all under-18s.