By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
CANBERRA (Worthy News) – Setting a benchmark for jurisdictions worldwide, Australia has banned social media for children under 16. with the government saying that ” the safety of our kids is a priority.”
On Friday, Australians reacted with anger and relief to the ban, which tech giants like TikTok argued could push young people to “darker corners of the internet.”
The law forces tech giants from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta Platforms to TikTok to stop minors from logging in or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($32 million).
A trial of enforcement methods will start in January, with the ban to take effect in a year.
“We’ve passed important legislation to keep our kids safe online,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in a statement obtained by Worthy News.
“Social media is doing social harm to our kids. We’ve called time on it. We want our kids to have a childhood and parents to know we have their backs,” he added.
BEAUTY FILTERS
It comes amid growing concerns about addiction as well as age-inappropriate content, ranging from sexual to violent materials readily available online for minors.
Experts also warned that girls are using beauty filters at “alarming rates,” with research showing that for many, it makes them “feel worse” about their appearance.
Critics said that despite these concerns, Australia’s government ignored advice from “a chorus of experts,” including the Australian Human Rights Commission, which warned the legislation was “rushed through” parliament.
The Commission said the government had not taken “the time to get the details right, or even know how the ban will work in practice.”
However, a new poll shows 77 percent of Australians support the ban.
Australia is the first known Western democracy to ban social media platforms permanently for minors.
Copyright 1999-2024 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
Latest News from Worthy News
Christians gathered in Indonesia on Thursday to pray for survivors and families of victims of the Indian Ocean tsunami 20 years ago that killed some 230,000 people and left deep scarves in the lives of those who were there.
The US-based Eastern European Mission (EEM) Bible distribution ministry recently reported that, amid the continuing devastating war against Russia’s invasion, Ukrainians have requested an increasing number of Bibles to be sent to be delivered in their language, The Christian Post (CP) reports.
A bus carrying dozens of people veered off the road, landing in a lake in Norway and killing several people, authorities say.
Hundreds of Christians in Syria took to the streets of Damascus on Tuesday to protest the destruction of a Christmas tree in the Christian-majority town of Suqaylabiyah, near Hama, Politico reports. The tree was burned down just over two weeks after the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Islamic insurgent group on December 8.
Five journalists of a television station linked to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), a group designated as a “terrorist organization” by Israel, were killed Thursday in an Israeli air strike on their vehicle in Gaza, the network said.
An increasing number of mass graves are being discovered in Syria since the brutal rule of dictator Bashar al-Assad came to an end at the hands of the Islamic insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on December 8, TRT reports. Last week, an international war crimes prosecutor said the mass grave sites in Syria show Assad had operated the “machinery of death” against anyone he considered an enemy.
Sudanese civilians are dealing with famine in addition to the death, displacement, maiming, and trauma brought on them by the war for power between Sudan’s National Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that broke out in April 2023, Courthouse News reports.