Australia has banned teenagers from using social media, launching a world-first crackdown aimed at weaning children off social media addictions like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
A number of the world's most popular apps and websites face fines of up to $33 million if they fail to remove Australian-based users under the age of 16.
Australia becomes one of the first countries to so strongly oppose tech titans wielding great political power.
The government says unprecedented measures are needed to protect children from "predatory algorithms" that fill phone screens with harassment, sex and violence.
"Too often, social media is not social at all," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said before the ban.
“Instead, it is used as a weapon for bullies, a platform for peer pressure, an anxiety inducer, a tool for scammers, and, worst of all, a tool for online predators.”
The laws came into effect after midnight local time across Australia.
Hundreds of thousands of teenagers will wake up and find themselves locked out of the apps they once used for hours every day.
"I don't think the government really knows what it's doing and I don't think it's going to have any impact on the children of Australia," 15-year-old Layton Lewis said before the ban.
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit are prohibited from creating or maintaining accounts belonging to users under the age of 16 in Australia.
Streaming platforms Kick and Twitch are also on the government's blacklist, as are messaging forums Threads and X.
The ban is a godsend for parents tired of watching their children glued to their phones.
Mia Bannister blamed social media for the suicide of her teenage son, Ollie, who killed himself last year after being bullied online.
She said he was also being served endless diet videos that encouraged an eating disorder.
"I'm tired of social media giants avoiding responsibility," she said.
“The problem is that we give them a phone and we give them the most powerful weapon we could give them.”
A growing number of studies suggest that excessive time online is negatively impacting the well-being of adolescents.
But it's difficult to draw strong conclusions that separate phone use from other lifestyle factors.
Father-of-five Dany Elachi said the restrictions were a belated "line in the sand."
"We need to be careful before giving children something that is addictive," he told AFP.
Tech-savvy teenagers around the world have already shown interest in Australia's ban.
"Students these days are really distracted," said Nigerian high school student Mitchelle Okinedo, 15.
"Social media today is very important for expressing yourself, no matter how old you are," said Santiago Ramirez Rojas, 16, from Mexico City.
Meta, YouTube and other social media giants have lined up to condemn the ban, which deprives their platforms of a large number of dedicated users.
While most have grudgingly agreed to comply with the request, for now, legal challenges are pending.
Online discussion site Reddit said on Tuesday it could not confirm local media reports that it would seek to overturn the ban in the High Court of Australia.
An Australian internet rights group has already launched its own petition to bring teenagers back onto social media.
YouTube has attacked the laws as "hasty" and said they will only push children into deeper, darker corners of the internet.
"At YouTube, we believe in protecting children in the digital world, not from the digital world."
Australia's efforts will be closely monitored by all those concerned about the dangers of social media.
New Zealand and Malaysia are already considering similar restrictions.
The Australian government acknowledges that the ban will be far from perfect at first and clever teenagers will find ways to get around it.
But the platforms face the threat of fines of 49.5 million Australian dollars (33 million US dollars) if they do not take "reasonable steps" to stop this from happening.
It remains to be seen how Australia's cybersecurity regulator will interpret what is considered reasonable.
Social media companies bear sole responsibility for checking whether users are 16 years of age or older.
Some platforms say they will use artificial intelligence tools to estimate ages based on photos, while new users can also choose to verify their age by uploading a government-issued ID.
Which platforms fall under the ban continues to be debated.
Popular apps and websites such as Roblox, Pinterest and WhatsApp are currently exempt, but the government has stressed that the list remains under review.
Most social media platforms require users to be at least 13 years old — a legacy of US laws that set a minimum age for data collection without parental consent.
© BalkansWebsite
Information source @BalkanWeb: Read more at: the world today www.botasot.al
