Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban Sparks Privacy and Enforcement Challenges

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Thursday a proposal to ban children under 16 from using social media, aiming to protect young people’s mental health.

Calling social media “harmful to our kids,” Albanese stated, “I’m calling time on it.”

These long-awaited age restrictions are part of broader measures by Albanese's centre-left Labour government to hold tech giants accountable, whom he blames for contributing to misinformation and mental health issues.

Notably, the choice of 16 as the age limit remains unexplained, and there is no international consensus on a suitable age threshold for social media restrictions.

Implementing the ban, however, will be difficult. To exclude users under 16, technology companies would need to verify the ages of all social media users, requiring some form of age authentication for continued access.

This presents a significant technological challenge and is likely to spark frustration and data privacy concerns among social media users.