Albanese said implementation would inevitably be uneven, but that the measure would ultimately save lives.
— endorsed by major parties and supported by around three-quarters of Australian parents —
One day after the ban, several teenagers boasted of continuing on the platforms
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended a new ban on the use of social media by people under 16, after several teenagers boasted online about continuing to use the platforms.
One day after the law came into force, social media in the country was filled with comments from alleged minors under the age of 16. One of them, posted on the prime minister’s TikTok account, read: “I’m still here, wait until I can vote.”
“This is the law, it is not something that can be ignored. Some young people who have not yet been removed from the networks are bragging about it. This only reveals to the platforms who they are, and these accounts will be removed,” Albanese told Sky News from the News Corp group.
The new legislation forces ten of the biggest platforms, including TikTok, Meta’s Instagram and Alphabet’s YouTube, to block minor users or face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million). The government has already warned that it may take some time for services to implement the necessary mechanisms.
During a visit to a school in Canberra, Albanese said the ban will result in better school results and more balanced behavior, as “there is better social interaction when students are not always clinging to their devices”.
According to Reuters, searches for VPNs in Australia reached their highest level in about ten years in the week before the law came into force, according to public data from Google. Supplier Windscribe told Reuters that installations increased by 400% after the ban came into effect. Another free service, hide.me, registered a 65% increase in visits in the country, although without equivalent growth in downloads.
