Canberra, Nov 29 (UITV) – Aiming to ensure the safety of children, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday said that social media companies have a social responsibility to ensure the safety of children. His statement came at a time when Parliament passed a law banning children under the age of 16 from using social media platforms.
According to news agency Xinhua, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters in Canberra that this law, which is the first of its kind in the world, will work to protect young Australian children from online dangers. He said that protecting our children should become the primary responsibility of social media platforms.
This new law was approved by the Senate late on Thursday night. After this, it was passed for the second time in the procedural session in the House of Representatives on Friday morning. Now this law is ready to come into force and it will be implemented in the next 12 months.
However, the government has not yet clarified the process of implementing this law. According to the law, if social media companies fail to take appropriate steps to prevent children under the age of 16 from using their platforms, they may have to pay a fine of up to 50 million Australian dollars (about 32.5 million US dollars).
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Prime Minister Albanese said that it can be accepted that the implementation of this law will not be completely flawless. He gave the example of this, saying that the ban on alcohol for people under the age of 18 does not mean that they will never be able to access alcohol, but this step is in the right direction for the society.
Meta (which is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram) reacted to this law and expressed concern over it. A spokesperson for the company said that the speed at which the law was passed is worrying. The spokesperson also said that in this process, not enough attention was paid to the steps already taken by the industry, the provision of age-appropriate experiences and the voices of youth.
This new law reflects growing concerns over the safety of children in Australian society. This tough step has been taken by the government to prevent harassment, cyber bullying and children’s access to inappropriate content on online platforms. However, the industry and experts have raised questions about the challenges in its implementation.
With the implementation of this law, it will be important to see how social media companies adopt it and whether it proves effective in protecting children.
