National cabinet endorses plan to ban social media for under 16s

ABC NEWS (Australia)

National cabinet has endorsed the federal government's legislation to ban people under the age of 16 from using social media. Tasmania proposed lowering the age to 14 but didn't want to stand in the way of national uniformity.

Transcript

00:00Prime Minister Anthony Albanese essentially got what he wanted, which was an endorsement

00:06from state and territory leaders around the country to back in this proposal of having

00:11a minimum age of 16 for social media use.

00:15The Prime Minister did say though that the Tasmanian Premier did want that age to be

00:2014, but decided to go with the rest of the group so there could be a uniform position

00:25around the country.

00:27Now in terms of what happens next, this legislation will be introduced into Parliament here in

00:32Canberra a little later this year.

00:34It's expected to get the support from the opposition.

00:37They have been calling for a minimum age of 16 for some time now and then once it becomes

00:44law, 12 months later the minimum age will be enforced.

00:48So that gives social media companies, the government says, some time to be able to get

00:53their act together.

00:54This is the Prime Minister speaking earlier, talking about the positive benefits it could

00:59have for children.

01:00One of the discussions that we had with Premiers and Chief Ministers today was an analogy drawn

01:05between the banning of phones in classrooms and the feedback from that, controversial

01:14to some when it was introduced, is just overwhelmingly positive.

01:19Now some other details we do know about this proposal is that it will still include kids

01:24who might currently be on social media.

01:26So if you're 13 or 14 and using Instagram or TikTok, when this ban does come into effect

01:33in potentially 12 months' time, you'll still be included in this ban, even if your parents

01:38are okay with you using social media.

01:41Now we have heard from Meta, the parent company behind Facebook and Instagram, their concern

01:48is exactly how this is going to be monitored.

01:51They say it makes more sense to do it via an app store because they say when you set

01:56up a phone or device, it does already collect your age.

02:01When you get a new phone or a new device, you do spend a bit of time sitting down as

02:05a family setting it all up and age information is collected at that time.

02:10And so there is a really simple solution there that at that one point in time, then the verification

02:15can occur.

02:17Now there have been questions about privacy in all of this because some tech groups have

02:22said that for it to work, users would need to hand over identification like a driver's

02:27licence or have some sort of face check.

02:29In response to questions about privacy today, the Prime Minister says that is one of the

02:34reasons behind this 12-month implementation process to be able to iron out some of those

02:40concerns.

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