Australia contemplates a ban on social media for children under the age of 16:
Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and ‘onto the footy fields’.
Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Anthony Albanese said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a ‘scourge’.
The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.
The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16.
Social media can literally be as dangerous as driving for children, as they are far too immature to be dealing with some of the personal issues and challenges that social media can create for them. Also, it will be considerably harder for child predators to groom and lure children away from their homes if they have no electronic access to them.