Elon Musk takes a swipe at Anthony Albanese

The Australian government’s first plan to ban children from social media has caught the attention of Elon Musk, who claims it could lead to wider restrictions.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday announced the introduction of his bill, which will require Australians to be over 16 to use many popular apps including Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and X, which Musk owns.

“It seems like a backdoor way to control internet access for all Australians,” Musk responded after Albanians bragged about the law on social media.

Musk, who was recently nicknamed ‘First Buddy’ for his friendship with newly elected US President Donald Trump, has long been a supporter of freedom of expression, which is one of the reasons why he claimed that in 2022 when it was still called Twitter, bought it. .

Greens Senator David Shoebridge questioned at a Senate committee hearing earlier this month whether the ban could only be enforced by requiring age verification of all Australians using social media.

Deputy Secretary for Communications and Media at the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, James Chisolm, replied ‘yes’.

The government has since said that some of the proposed legislation would prevent tech companies from keeping track of information collected during the verification process.

Companies that systematically fail to enforce the ban could face fines of up to $50 million under the legislation being debated in parliament.

Musk said the ban could lead to broader restrictions on Australians

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told parliament the ban would dramatically reshape Australian society’s relationship with social media.

“This bill aims to establish a new normative value in society that access to social media is not the defining characteristic of growing up in Australia,” she said.

“There is widespread recognition that something needs to be done in the short term to prevent young teenagers and children from being exposed to streams of unfiltered content,” she added.

While there is bipartisan political support to pass the proposed teen ban, there is debate over whether it will actually curb the harms of social media.

The details surrounding the ban could change before the legislation is passed by Parliament.

Platforms would then have a year to implement a process to enforce this.

Messenger Kids, WhatsApp, Kids Helpline, Google Classroom and YouTube are expected to be classified as ‘out-of-scope services’.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said it was a matter of urgency that the ban be introduced

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman said social media companies had abrogated their responsibility to care for Australian children for “too long”.

“We look forward to working constructively on this legislation so that it can be passed by Parliament next week,” he said.

The eSafety Commissioner’s office said the age guarantee was important but needed to be part of a broader approach.

‘We must also continue to work to ensure that online services are safe by design and to build children’s digital literacy, resilience and critical reasoning skills so that when they reach the age of majority to use these services, are equipped for the online world,” it says. said.

The Australian Human Rights Commission said while the ban was intended to protect children from harm, it was likely to have negative human rights implications for young people.