Australia's ban on social media for under-16s has been approved by both houses of parliament

Australia's Senate passed legislation on Wednesday that, once signed by the country's head of state, will he will cover the children under the age of 16 from using many social networks. The new law will give Australia the strictest restrictions of any democracy in the world on children's use of the most popular social media apps.

The Senate passed the bill by 34 votes to 19 on Thursday, a day after Australia's House of Representatives passed the same bill by 102 votes to 13.

Australia's major House parties all support the bill, which would see social media companies such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, iX and Instagram face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for failing to prevent people under the age of 16. from creating accounts on their platforms.

Tech giant Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, called for the bill to be delayed. In a statement posted online on Tuesday, Meta said it is “concerned that the government is pushing this law without sufficient consultation or evidence and there are still many unknowns about its implementation.”

“The government's approach would require each app provider to collect personal information or biometric data from all Australians to prevent under-16s from accessing their services, an inefficient and burdensome process for everyone,” a Meta spokesperson said. .

Meta also pointed to a policy it introduced earlier this year on its Instagram site, Instagram youth accounts, which limits who can contact youth through its accounts and tries to moderate the content young users see.

In a post shared last week on the platform he owns, tech billionaire Elon Musk also criticized the Australian bill and said it appeared to him to be a “backhanded way to control internet access for all Australians.”

Other private organizations and non-profit organizations have also targeted the bill, expressing concern that young people's rights may be restricted by it.

The chief executive of the charity Save the Children, Matt Tinkler, in a statement issued earlier this month said that while he welcomed the government's efforts to protect children from harm online, the solution should be to regulate social media companies, rather than introducing a total ban.

“We are asking the government to reconsider this way of passing the law, instead of using the momentum of this time to hold the social media giants accountable, and demand that they focus on security in their platforms rather than thinking about it, and working with them. professionals and children and young people themselves to make online spaces safe, instead of forbidden,” said Tinkler.

The Australian Human Rights Commission, an independent government body, expressed its “significant reservations” about the proposed law in an analysis published last week.

“There are limited alternatives available that can achieve the goal of protecting children and young people from harm on the Internet, but without having such a negative impact on other human rights. Another example of another answer would be to impose a legal duty of care on social media companies,” the analysis said. “And we need to help children and and young people to better navigate online spaces by ensuring that the national curriculum includes a special focus on teaching digital literacy and online safety.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese dismissed criticism of the proposed law as he spoke in parliament on Monday.

“There are reasonable exemptions. We want to make sure that young people can continue to access health and education-related services – Headspace, YouTube, Google Classroom – as well as messaging services and online games,” he said.

The Australian leader added that there would be “stronger and stricter privacy requirements to protect personal information, including an obligation to destroy information provided once age has been verified.”

Despite the criticism, the law remains popular with Australians, according to recent polling data.

A YouGov poll released on Tuesday showed 77% of Australians back the ban on under-16s, with 87% saying they support the introduction of tougher penalties for social media companies that fail to comply.