Australia passes law to ban under 16-year-olds from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat

It was only earlier in the month the Australian House of Representatives voted to pass new legislation that bans social media for anyone that isn't over the age of 16.

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That new legislation has now been voted upon in the Australian Senate, where it was passed, meaning the details of the Bill "Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age)" will be brought into effect. According to the new legislation, social media platforms will now be obligated to implement age verification checks and strategies to prevent social media platforms from being used by underage people.

Services that will fall under these new policies enable users to post material, interact with two or more people, and interact with all other end users, which all of the popular social media platforms, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, and X, all fall under.How this new widespread regulation will be implemented is up to the companies behind the social media platform, not the Australian government.

However, the Australian government will soon be running an age verification trial that it believes will be instructional. Notably, the Australian government has told its citizens that age verification for social media platforms won't require a driver's license or an official ID, with previous reports citing the plan to use biometric face analysis, voice analysis, and behavioral data mined from a user search history. The Australian government is seeking to mitigate the negative effects of social media on young people, such as bullying and harassment, which can lead to health complications such as anxiety and depression.