Australia to impose new age limits on social media websites

AUSTRALIA’S government will work with states and territories to legislate new age limits for social media websites, as part of a push to protect children’s mental health and shield them from inappropriate content online.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will introduce the new laws before an election due within the next nine months, saying parents were working “without a map” to try and tackle the mental health consequences triggered by social media.

“No generation has faced this challenge before,” Albanese will say in a speech on Tuesday (Sep 10), according to excerpts provided by his office in advance. “Too often, there’s nothing social about social media – taking kids away from real friends and real experiences.”

No specific age limit has been set yet for social media, with the government already trialling age assurance technology to restrict children’s access to inappropriate content online, including pornography. The government is also still consulting on how the ban would work in practice.

Albanese told Australian Broadcasting on Tuesday that the government was considering an upper age limit of 14 to 16 years for the ban.

“We are looking at how you deliver it. This is a global issue that governments around the globe are trying to deal with,” he said.

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A June survey by Essential Media found that 68 per cent of Australians were supportive of an age limit of social media, with only 15 per cent opposed.

Since coming to power in May 2022, the centre-left Labor government has taken several steps to try to crack down on problems associated with harmful content online. In the first half of 2024, it took social media platform X to court in an attempt to force it to remove footage of a violent terrorist attack in Sydney. BLOOMBERG