The Australian Senate has passed a landmark law that will keep kids under 16 from using social media

Australia’s Senate passed a law that says kids younger than 16 can’t use social media. Platforms that don’t follow the law will be fined heavily.

The Australian Senate passed a groundbreaking law on Thursday that says kids under 16 can’t use social media. This law is expected to become a major rule.

The Senate passed the bill with 34 votes for and 19 votes against. This came after the House of Representatives passed the bill with 102 votes to 13 against.

The law says that sites like TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, and Instagram will be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars if they don’t stop people under 16 from making accounts. 

The Senate’s suggested changes still need to be ratified by the House, but this should be a simple matter since the government has already said it supports them. Before they are punished, social media companies will have a year to come up with ways to enforce the ban.

The changes also make privacy better by stopping platforms from asking users for government-issued IDs or digital IDs that are made through government systems. The House will finish making the changes on Friday.

Even though both major parties support the ban, some people who work to protect children and improve mental health are concerned about what might go wrong. Senator David Shoebridge of the Greens party was worried that the ban would make kids who depend on social media for help feel alone.

Senator Maria Kovacic of the opposition party said that the bill was necessary and fair. She said, “The main point of this legislation is simple: it requires social media companies to take reasonable steps to find and remove underage users from their platforms.”

“These companies have known they should have been doing this a long time ago, but they have been avoiding it in favor of making money for too long.”

Christopher Stone, executive head of Suicide Prevention Australia, said that the law was flawed because it didn’t take into account how social media can help young people’s mental health.

Social media sites said the law wouldn’t work and asked the Senate to put off the vote until at least June of next year, when a government-commissioned study of age verification tools is due.

Critics say the government is trying to convince parents that it will protect children before the general election in May, hoping to get voters’ support because of worries about how much kids use social media. Some people say the law might hurt more than help.

People who are against the bill say that it was rushed through Parliament without enough review, that it doesn’t work, that it puts everyone’s privacy at risk, and that it weakens parental authority.

They also say that the ban could make kids feel alone, keep them from enjoying the good things about social media, send them to the dark web, stop kids from reporting harm, and make platforms less likely to work to make the internet safer.