Less than 4 months ago, Australia banned social media for kids under 16, sparking a wave of similar proposals from governments around the world. The latest effort to ban social media for children now comes from Austria. In a press release, the Austrian government announced that a bill will be introduced by the end of June to ban social media use for children under 14.
According to the press release, a mandatory minimum age of 14 for social media would only be one part of the bill seeking to address child safety online. The bill would also introduce media literacy in schools to help young people “recognize disinformation and radicalization.”
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The Austrian government said these measures would be taken in order to address the issues children have faced as a result of social media, such as cyberbullying, addiction, and mental health problems.
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While the press release doesn’t provide many details, it does mention that any bill introduced would address data privacy concerns related to age verification methods, ensuring that users’ information is protected.
Many social media platforms have policies requiring users to be a certain age to join. However, these rules are implemented by companies themselves, with little to no incentive to uphold them. At the government level, however, as in Australia’s first such bill, these bills slap social media companies with hefty fines for allowing users under age to join their platforms. The U.S. may be joining soon, as a bipartisan group of Senators proposed a bill earlier this year that would ban social media for children under 13.
The U.S. also recently saw social media companies like Meta and YouTube lose two separate trials regarding social platforms harming young people’s mental health. It will be interesting to see how U.S. lawmakers go forward with their age limit proposals following those verdicts.
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