Australia’s federal government announced last month that it plans to ban younger teenagers from using social media — a move that would be a world-first if successfully rolled out. - REUTERS
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00:00Australia's federal government announced last month that it plans to ban younger teenagers
00:06from using social media in response to concerns about bullying, predatory grooming, and physical
00:11and mental health.
00:13If successfully rolled out, it would be the world's first age-based ban targeting internet
00:17platforms.
00:18However, the proposed ban has received backlash from many young Australians, like Ben Kiyoko,
00:23who say the ban would actually make life harder for them and isolate them further.
00:27Yeah, so being autistic, I have a really, really hard time connecting with others.
00:33And doing that online makes it a lot easier.
00:37Being online, you're able to connect with other people with the same interests, get
00:41experiences.
00:42Teens like Kiyoko represent what experts say is a blind spot in the plan by Australia's
00:47government to set an age minimum for social media websites, as an age block would mean
00:51cutting off support for teens in minority groups like the neurodivergent community.
00:57Surveys show that some 97 percent of Australian teenagers use social media across an average
01:02of four platforms.
01:04That makes them among the world's most connected young people.
01:07Sixteen-year-old Laura Seaton has mixed feelings about the proposed ban.
01:11Like you said before, the communication, people feel like they can be more confident on social
01:16media because you're behind a screen.
01:18But that also means that bullies can be confident.
01:22And that's not a good thing.
01:23They can just go, hey, you're ugly and not feel anything because it's a text, you know
01:27what I mean?
01:28Like, it's like you can just comment easily and be like, you're not very pretty, are you?
01:32You know, stuff like that.
01:34Nearly two-thirds of parents of teenagers in the country reported concerns about their
01:38children's social media use, according to a 2024 survey by Youth Service Reach Out.
01:44But Justine Humphrey, a senior lecturer in digital cultures at the University of Sydney,
01:49says a ban is not the best way to go.
01:52Young people themselves are not in favor of a ban.
01:56Humphrey says an age-based ban ignores other important factors that determine online experiences
02:01for young people.
02:02So even though the age is really fundamentally important that we need to get right, what
02:08we're talking about when we say we're going to introduce a ban by age is that it negates
02:13the fact that young people have very, very different levels of maturity depending on
02:17their age and their backgrounds, and also whether they occupy that younger or older
02:24teenage group.
02:26In September, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his centre-left government would run
02:30an age verification trial before introducing the laws by the end of this year.
02:35While no lower age limit has been proposed, officials have suggested between 14 and 16.