The ban on under-16s will be watched closely to see whether it works
Australia's online safety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has predicted that the rest of the world will follow her country's decision to ban social media accounts for children under the age of 16. Time will tell whether or not she is right, but the rest of the world will certainly be watching closely the impact of the ban which comes into effect on December 10th.
The response of the social media platforms affected including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube will be of particular interest. The owners of these platforms include some of the world's largest and most powerful corporations such as Meta and Alphabet.
Having opposed the legislation - including asking the Trump administration to press the Australian government on the issue - the platforms have started to comply with the new law. Instagram, Facebook and Threads - owned by Meta - have already started to deactivate accounts, while others are contacting account holders. Failure to comply would leave them open to fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (€28 million).
The initiative has strong public support in Australia and is backed by extensive research into the harmful effects of exposure to social media at an early age. An online poll by YouGov found that 77 per cent of Australians supported the measure, while a poll by the Sydney Morning Herald found that 58 per cent supported it, though 67 per cent doubted it will achieve its aims. Their doubts may be well founded. Social media companies will comply with the letter of the law but unless they embrace its spirit it will be hard for its goals to be achieved. Efforts by children under the age of 16 to circumvent the ban can be taken as a given.
Similar levels of public support for an age limit for access to social media have been found by polling in Ireland and the Government is examining the issue, according to the Department of Culture, Communications and Sport. An online age-verification system is set to be tested here in the months ahead.
As Ireland and other EU states consider what to do, Australia will be an important test case.