नवीनतम
Australia bans social media for under-16s
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: Tech giant Meta said Thursday it is starting to remove under-16s in Australia from Instagram, Threads and Facebook ahead of the country's world-first youth social media ban.
Australia is requiring major online platforms, also including TikTok and YouTube, to block underage users by December 10, when the new law comes into force.
Companies face fines of Aus$49.5 million (US$32 million) if they fail to take "reasonable steps" to comply.
"While we are working hard to remove all users who we understand to be under the age of 16 by 10 December, compliance with the law will be an ongoing and multi-layered process," a Meta spokesperson said.
Younger users can save and download their online histories, the spokesperson for the US company added.
"Before you turn 16, we will notify you that you will soon be allowed to regain access to these platforms, and your content will be restored exactly as you left it."
Hundreds of thousands of adolescents are expected to be impacted by the ban, with Instagram alone reporting about 350,000 Australian users aged 13 to 15.
Some popular apps and websites such as Roblox, Pinterest and WhatsApp are exempt, but the list remains under review.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said she had initially expressed concern about the “blunt-force” approach of blocking under-16s from social media but she had come to embrace it after incremental regulatory changes were not effective enough.
“We’ve reached a tipping point,” Inman Grant said on Thursday at the Sydney Dialogue, a cyber summit.
“Our data is the currency that fuels these companies, and there are these powerful, harmful, deceptive design features that even adults are powerless to fight against. What chance do our children have?”
Governments around the world were watching as the Australian law takes effect on December 10, and “I’ve always referred to this as the first domino, which is why they pushed back”, she added, referring to the platforms.
After more than a year campaigning against the ban which carries a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million), platforms owned by Meta , TikTok, Snap’s Snapchat and Alphabet’s , YouTube have said they will comply.
Some 96% of Australian teenagers under 16 – more than a million of the country’s 27 million population – have social media accounts, according to eSafety.
Although the law takes effect on December 10, Meta’s Instagram, Facebook and Threads began deactivating accounts from Thursday, according to screenshots seen by Reuters.
Most other affected platforms have started contacting underage users advising them to download their photos and contacts and offering the choice of deleting their accounts or freezing them until they turn 16.
“It’s a great thing and I’m glad that the pressure is taken off the parents because there’s so many mental health implications,” said Jennifer Jennison, a Sydney mother.
“Give my kids a break after school and they can rest and hang out with the family.”
At the conference, Inman Grant said lobbying by the platforms had apparently involved taking their case to the U.S. government, which has asked her to testify at its congressional House Judiciary about what it called an attempt to exert extra-territorial power over American free speech.
Inman Grant didn’t say if she would agree to the request but noted that “by virtue of writing to me and asking me to appear before the committee, that’s also using extra-territorial reach”.
