Australia on Thursday passed a law banning social media for under-16s, following a , setting a benchmark for jurisdictions around the world with some of the strictest regulations against big technology companies.
The law forces tech giants, from Instagram and Facebook owner Meta to TikTok, to prevent minors from logging in or face fines of up to $32 million. A test of methods to enforce the law will begin in January and the ban will come into force within a year.
The social media minimum age law puts Australia as a test case for a growing number of governments that have legislated or said they plan to legislate social media age restrictions amid concern about the impact on young people’s mental health.
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Countries such as France and some states in the United States have passed laws to restrict access to minors without their parents’ permission, but the Australian ban is absolute. A blanket ban on children under 14 in Florida is being challenged in court on free speech grounds.
The passage of the law after a marathon session on the last day of the Australian parliamentary year marks a political victory for center-left Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who heads to a 2025 election amid falling opinion polls.
The ban faced opposition from privacy advocates and some children’s rights groups, but 77% of the population wanted it, according to the latest polls.
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The measure comes amid a climate of antagonism between Australia and US-based technology giants. Australia was the first country to make social media platforms pay media royalties for sharing their content and now plans to threaten them with fines for failing to stamp out scams.
Representatives for Meta, TikTok and X, which the government says will be affected by the ban, were not immediately available for comment.
The companies — including Alphabet’s Google, whose YouTube is exempt because it is widely used in schools — argued that the legislation should be delayed until after the age verification test.
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“It’s the cart before the horse,” said Sunita Bose, managing director of the Digital Industry Group, which counts most social media companies as members.
“We have the bill, but we don’t have guidance from the Australian government on what are the correct methods that the whole range of services subject to this law will need to employ,” Bose added, speaking to Reuters.
