Australia goes to war with Silicon Valley (again)

Australia’s parliament has passed a law banning access to social media platforms for those under sixteen years old, with support from both the governing Labor Party and the opposition Liberal-National Coalition. The ban which, according to a recent YouGov poll, has overwhelming public support, will come into effect in November 2025 following a trial of enforcement methods expected to start in January.

The legislation places the responsibility for enforcement solely on social media companies and gives Australian authorities the power to levy fines of up to $AUD50 million if they fail to prevent children from creating and using accounts on their platforms.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland says the bill “at a minimum”covers Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit and X but will not apply to YouTube – partly as it is used for educational purposes but also because YouTube videos can be accessed without a requirement to log in.

The exclusion of YouTube is interesting. A recent study by the University of Amsterdam found that the video content platform ranked alongside Instagram and Tiktok in its negative impact on the mental health of adolescent users. It is possible that this has been overlooked in the rush to legislate – Australia has a track record of passing tech legislation without fully thinking through the potential consequences, leading to Meta temporarily removing news from Facebook feeds in 2021.

It would be tempting to wonder how much this really impacts global tech giants. After all, Australia constitutes a fraction of their international user base. However, the concern in Silicon Valley is more about the knock-on effects elsewhere. Countries around the world – including the UK – are watching with interest to see how this plays out.

There are also questions around enforcement. The potential fines are small change for organisations like Meta and X. The UK’s Online Safety Act 2023 gives the regulator powers to go further via business disruption measures that prevent a company breaching the law by restricting access to banking or preventing a platform from generating advertising revenue. It is unclear at present whether Australians are willing to go this far to enforce the ban.

And public opinion could change as adult users find that age verification methods such as facial recognition make accessing the platforms more difficult, at least in the short term. It’s one thing to back a law that affects children, but will that support hold if it inconveniences all users?

Finally, Australia is picking a fight with a very large kid. Some of the less responsible social media platforms could fight back by algorithmically boosting content which opposes the law. Elon Musk, who says the ban “seems like a backdoor way to control access to the internet by all Australians” is currently close to President-elect Trump which could affect Australia’s relationship with the USA if Trump chooses to take the side of the tech billionaire on this issue.

Whatever happens, this is not just a story about Australia – it has the potential to impact access to social media in the UK, the EU, North America and across the world. All eyes on Canberra as this plays out over the next 12 months.