Social media sites are lobbying the Australian government to delay its proposed age limits for children younger than 16.
An advocate for the digital industry wants new Australian legislation to ban children under 16 from social media to be delayed.
Sunita Bose, managing director of Digital Industry Group Inc, was answering questions at a single-day Senate committee hearing into world-first legislation that was introduced into the Australian 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 (€30.4 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.
The new rules 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.
Social media ‘not a safe product’ for children
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 be served up by influencers,” she added.
Bose received heated questions from several senators and challenges to the accuracy of her answers.
Opposition Senator Ross Cadell asked how his 10-year-old stepson was able to hold Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube accounts from the age of 8, despite the platforms setting a nominal age limit of 13.
Bose replied that “this is an area where the industry needs to improve”.
She said the proposed social media ban risked isolating some children and driving children to “darker, less safe online spaces” than mainstream platforms.
Bose said her concern with the proposed law was that “this could compromise the safety of young people,” prompting a hostile response from opposition Senator Sarah Henderson.
“That’s an outrageous statement. You’re trying to protect the Big Tech giants,” Henderson said.
