Australia to ban social media for childen under 16

'Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I'm calling time on it,' said the PM Anthony Albanese.

Transcript

00:00And this one's for the mums and dads.

00:02Social media is doing harm to our kids, and I'm calling time on it.

00:08I've spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles.

00:12They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online.

00:17And I want Australian parents and families to know that the Government has your back.

00:23I want parents to be able to say,

00:25sorry mate, it's against the law for me to get you to do this.

00:31We don't argue that the changes that we will be legislating will fix everything immediately.

00:40We have laws such as people can't buy alcohol if they're under 18.

00:46And from time to time, that can be broken.

00:51But those laws set what the parameters are for our society,

00:56and they assist in ensuring the right outcomes.

01:02Now, Government's proposed age is 16.

01:06That decision was made in Cabinet on Monday.

01:10And that proposal will go to the National Cabinet meeting that I'm convening online,

01:17a virtual meeting tomorrow morning.

01:19The onus will be on, just to go through some of the details,

01:23the onus will be on social media platforms to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent access.

01:30The onus won't be on parents or young people.

01:33There will be no penalties for users.

01:36The East Safety Commissioner will provide oversight and enforcement.

01:40The legislation will come into force 12 months after passage.

01:44There will be a review of the legislation following its commencement to make sure.

01:49This is world-leading legislation.

01:52We want to make sure that it is got right.

01:55The East Safety Commissioner will issue regulatory guidance

01:59setting out what reasonable steps can be taken by platforms,

02:02and that will be informed by the age assurance trial.