• Australia plans to ban social media for users under 16, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said.
• The ban comes amid a global effort to curb children’s use of social media.
• Some say Australia’s ban is too broad and potentially limits access to mental health services.

Concerns about social media addiction are taking root around the world, with young people using social media more than ever and social media companies perfecting the algorithms that keep them engaged. Australia now wants to ban social media for anyone under 16.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the plan on Thursday. Australia’s social media ban will be brought before Parliament in its final session, which starts on November 18 this year. He said social media companies will have 12 months to figure out how to keep minors off their apps before the law takes effect. .

“This is for the mothers and fathers,” Albanese said at a press conference. “Social media is harming our children and I don’t make time for it.”

Albanese told reporters that the proposed legislation would put the onus on social media companies, not parents, to show they were taking reasonable steps to keep children away from the apps.

“There will be no penalty for users,” he said.

Australia’s announcement comes on the heels of a multi-state lawsuit in the US that aims to hold TikTok accountable for deploying “addictive” strategies against children and teenagers.

Chief prosecutors came from 14 different states in October A lawsuit was filed against TikTok. They said the app is addictive and profits by harming children’s mental health.

Internal TikTok documents from the lawsuit filed in Kentucky showed TikTok employees determined that young users could become addicted to the app after watching 260 videos. Given that most TikTok videos are about 8 seconds long, Kentucky officials calculated that a child could be addicted after just 35 minutes of using the app, the document states.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in the United Kingdom introduced a bill in October that would require social media companies to exclude children under 16 from algorithms that collect their data. According to The Guardian, the law aims to make it harder for companies to serve addictive content to children.

In Australia, Albanese said social media had infiltrated every aspect of life, making him believe a ban on underage users was “absolutely the right thing to do”.

Approximately 97 percent of young people in Australia use social media on various platforms Reuters.

“This will be the number one debate outside the school gates, in tennis, cricket, football, netball, swimming – when parents get together it’s of huge concern,” Albanese said.

Albanese called the law “world-leading”, but some experts They oppose the ban, saying it is too broad. more than that 140 experts A opposing open letter was signed by Australia and other countries Among other concerns, the law says the ban is not enough for children who need to access critical services via social media.

Jackie Hallan, director of youth mental health service ReachOut, told The Associated Press that she, too, opposes the ban. According to Hallan, 73% of young people needing mental health services in Australia access these services through social media.

Hallan said in his statement to the press, “We are disturbed by the ban.” “We think young people are likely to get around a ban and our concern is that this behavior is really pushed underground and then if things go wrong young people are less likely to get support from their parents and carers because they’re worried about getting into trouble.”

Antigone Davis, Meta’s chief security officer, told The Associated Press that the company would comply with any age limits the Australian government wants to impose.

“But what’s missing is a deeper discussion about how we enforce protections, otherwise we run the risk of feeling better as if we’ve taken action, but young people and parents won’t find themselves in a better place,” Davis said in a statement.

Davis added that stronger parental control tools in app stores and operating systems would be a “simple and effective solution” to stop kids from downloading unwanted apps.