Australia’s ban on children under 16 on social media risks pushing children into the darker and less regulated corners of the internet.
This is what a spokesperson for the social media TikTok says, according to the Reuters news agency, after the ban was adopted by the Australian Parliament on Thursday evening Danish time.
– It will most likely push young people towards the darker corners of the internet, where there are no rules, safety tools or protections, says the spokesperson.
It is part of history that TikTok is precisely one of the social media that is affected by the law.
The law faces similar criticism from the UN Children’s Fund, Unicef.
The organisation’s Australian policy director, Katie Maskiell, says children’s protection must not come at the expense of online inclusion.
– The ban increasingly risks pushing children towards hidden and unregulated parts of the internet, and it prevents them from accessing the parts of the online world that are crucial for their well-being, says Maskiell.
The law requires the tech giants to prevent minors from logging into their platforms.
Violations result in fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars, which corresponds to almost 230 million Danish kroner.
The Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, said on Friday that the law gives social media such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok a “social responsibility to ensure the safety of our children is a priority”.
– We want to ensure that mothers and fathers can have a different type of conversation with their children today and in the future, said Albanese at a press conference.
The law does not expressly prescribe how it is to be enforced.
Several social media outlets have expressed concern about how it has been put together and have expressed interest in becoming part of the work to shape how the law will be implemented.
Meta, which is behind Facebook and Instagram, has called for consultation to ensure a “technically possible outcome that does not place a burdensome responsibility on teenagers and parents”.
A spokesperson for social media Snapchat says it has “serious concerns” about the law and that there are still “many unanswered questions” about how it will work.
/ritzau/
Source: www.kristeligt-dagblad.dk
