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Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen wants a 15- and-over age minimum on social media, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has floated an EU-wide inquiry on the effects of social media on young people’s mental health.
Blick, a Zurich-based newspaper, on Thursday featured an interview with Communications Minister Michelle Rowland, who was responsible for the legislation. The paper cited a survey claiming 78 per cent of people in Switzerland think children aged 16 and under should not be able to access social media.
“The Land of Kangaroos has just accepted a bill to fine social networks that tolerate accounts opened by children to the tune of millions. Blick asked the Australian Minister of Communication how and why it was urgent to act. And Michelle Rowland answered us!” it read.
In Russia, state-run news agency TASS published an online article announcing the bill had been approved. It pointed out two of the platforms Australian children would likely be unable to access, Instagram and Facebook, had already been banned and “recognised as extremist” by the Kremlin.
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One of India’s largest newspapers, the Hindi-language daily Amar Ujala, reported concerns about the laws, including Greens senator David Shoebridge’s warning “children from rural areas and the LGBTQ community” would be harmed.
“Many critics said that the law could be difficult to implement. They hoped that the government would conduct another study on it, which would tell how children can be kept out of social media in the right way,” the story read.
The US has wrestled with what to do with social media’s impact on kids for some months. Earlier this year, Florida banned children under 14 from using some platforms – that is now subject of a constitutional legal challenge.
In Utah, laws introduced in 2023 that banned people under 18 from using social media unless they had consent from their parents, were later overturned by a federal court.
The Washington Post pointed out that many Australian details remain vague, including how social media companies will verify someone’s age.
“One possibility is to require government-issued identification. Some critics claim the personal information of millions of Australians would be a target for hackers,” it read. Rowland has said companies must destroy the data and faced fines for misusing it.
In the UK, news outlets have followed the debate closely, particularly after Labour’s Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said he would consider pursuing similar laws.
“I am committed to using all the tools at our disposal from monitoring the impact of new laws, creating more and better evidence, and working with online safety campaigners and charities to achieve this goal”.
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