Australia Bans Social Media For U16: Which Other Nations Made Similar Laws?

"I want the Australian parents and families to know, that the government has your back,” quoted Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the wake of rising social media accounts of children. The young generation's inclination toward social media has raised concerns among guardians. Excessive use of social media has led to various physical, mental, and social disturbances among teens. On November 8, Australia announced its intention to ban social media for users below 16 years. 

In anticipation of Australia’s plan to ban social media access for children under 16, here is a list of countries implementing measures to safeguard children from the potential harms of social media.

Countries That Implemented Laws For Minors Using Social Media

France

Under the Children’s Image Rights Law, the French government aims to discourage the pictures of minors on social media without their consent. This aims to tackle the risk of sharing and misuse of pictures uploaded online and also facilitates rights to protect minors from overexploitation. The July 2023 law mandates parental or guardian consent before opening an account for children below 15 years.

China

The Cyberspace Administration of China has set up restrictions that disable internet services for minors from 10 pm to 6 am. Various Chinese Social Media platforms like Bilibili and Douyin have offered youth mode with content restrictions which also has a timer for the application usage. Children between 8 to 15 years are allowed only an hour while those under 8 would only be allowed 40 minutes of screen time.

Japan

Instagram has issued some guidelines for teenage social media users. Teens would only be able to send messages to those accounts who follow them back and guardians of users from the age of 13 to 17 will have access to their time spent on social media along with the people they chat with online. According to Japan's National Police Agency, over 1,600 children under the age of 18 were involved in incidents related to social media. These steps implemented will ensure their safety.

USA

Social media will terminate accounts of minors below 17 years old made without parents' consent. New York also implemented laws that will restrict the use of algorithms on social media pages for minors. It also enables the guardians to curate the content of feeds their ward can have access to. Guardians also have the right to disable notifications of the addictive feeds between 12 am to 6 am.

Russia

A Russian Bill passed requires users accessing social media to present identification documents proving their age. This law also abhors the use of social media to organize unauthorized public gatherings. This bill also restricted authorisation to use social media for kids below the age of 14.