State and territory governments have convened at a National cabinet meeting to approve a federal proposal to ban children under the age of 16 from social media platforms. Tasmania had been pushing for the age limit to be set at 14 but has come into line with the other states and territories.
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00:00The legislation the government has said will be introduced within the next sitting fortnight,
00:06that's just over a week away from now.
00:09And it looks like the bill might just pass within that sitting fortnight as well.
00:12The opposition has said they're pretty keen on it.
00:15They've been pushing for these social media bans for quite some time now as well.
00:20They're however warning the government to ensure that they don't offer any carve-outs
00:23that could provide platforms with a bit of a way around those bans, but it is moving
00:28pretty quickly.
00:29It is important to note though that there will be a 12-month buffer between the legislation
00:34or between the bill's passage and the ban actually coming into place.
00:39The reason for that is there are still quite a few things that need to be ironed out, particularly
00:43how that verification will take place.
00:46So there's an age assurance trial that is going on at the moment that could answer some
00:50of those questions.
00:53The details from that will come around sometime next year before the ban actually takes place.
00:59So the government will also look at doing a review after two years of the ban being
01:04in place to see how that technology is working and how technology on those platforms has
01:10changed.
01:11But one of the Prime Minister was somewhat realistic or upfront about how effective a
01:16certain ban could be.
01:19Here he was in Canberra a little earlier this morning.
01:23Social media is doing social harm to our young Australians and I am calling time on it.
01:31The safety and mental health of our young people has to be a priority and my government
01:37will do all that we can to protect our young Australians but also to provide support for
01:43parents and teachers who are dealing with these issues.
01:48So that was the Prime Minister Anthony Albanese there in Canberra a little earlier this morning.
01:52The other key issue that we're really contending with is privacy.
01:56The government's promised that there will be privacy provisions in that legislation
01:59and punishments for platforms that don't abide by those rules.
02:04We're yet to see though what those are so that's something we'll be eagerly eyed and
02:08waiting for when that legislation comes but some of the other details that we're still
02:12looking for will be answered next year.