In Edmonton and throughout Canada, there’s not a whole lot stopping anyone from creating an account on TikTok, Instagram or other social media platforms.
But Australia made history Thursday, becoming the first country to ban social media for users under the age of 16 – a world-first law.
The law will make platforms including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.
The Senate passed the bill on Thursday 34 votes to 19. The House of Representatives on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the legislation by 102 votes to 13. The House on Friday endorsed opposition amendments made in the Senate, making the bill law.
The platforms have one year to work out how they could implement the ban before penalties are enforced.
A social networking safety expert who works with youth across Canada tells CityNews the approach is flawed.
“Based on the data I’ve provided, and as I’m a cyber person, they connect with me and they understand what they should and should not be doing, and then they make choices based on education,” explained Paul Davis. “But coming down hard, pointing your finger and saying no, they don’t take that very well.”
Davis believes, through his experiences, that minors should be educated and empowered so they use social media safely, rather than in secrecy.
He does acknowledge some ages are too young to handle the responsibility, but suggests enforcement will be ineffective.
“It’s a reactive measure,” he said. “You cannot prevent bullying, threats, harassment, discrimination, extortion online. Can you respond to it and have consequences? Yes, but that doesn’t help the victim at that point.”
CityNews spoke to Edmontonians to see how they would feel about such a ban in Canada.
“It would be sort of a relief, but there’s always going to be somebody who’s going to figure out a way,” Lorna said.
“There’s a lot of scammers on social media,” added Sandy. “There’s a lot of stuff that isn’t appropriate for younger people. A lot of people fighting all the time in their comments. I think it would be a good thing to perhaps help them.”
“Children do get exposed to some unsavoury things when they’re unsupervised on the internet and social media, but I think outright banning it for anyone under 16 might be a little misguided,” said Nesclark.
–With files from The Associated Press