Australia should delay social media ban for children under 16, Big Tech says

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An advocate for major social media platforms told an Australian Senate committee Monday that laws to ban children younger than 16 from the sites should be delayed until next year at least instead of being rushed through the Parliament this week.

Sunita Bose, managing director of Digital Industry Group Inc., an advocate for the digital industry in Australia including X, Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, was answering questions at a single-day Senate committee hearing into world-first legislation that was introduced into the Parliament last week.

Bose said the Parliament should wait until the government-commissioned evaluation of age assurance technologies is completed in June.

“Parliament is asked to pass a bill this week without knowing how it will work,” Bose said.

The legislation would impose fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) on platforms for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.

It seems likely to be passed by Parliament by Thursday with the support of the major parties.

It would take effect a year after the bill becomes law, allowing the platforms time to work out technological solutions that would also protect users’ privacy.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said she looked forward to reading the Senate committee’s assessment of the proposed law, which “supports parents to say ‘no’” to children wanting to use social media.

“Social media in its current form is not a safe product for them,” Rowland told Parliament.

“Access to social media does not have to be the defining feature of growing up. There is more to life than constant notifications, endless scrolling and pressure to conform to the false and unrealistic perfectionism that can