MELBOURNE, Australia — How can we protect children from the harm of social media? Politically the answer seems simple in Australia, but in practice the solution could be much more difficult.

The Australian government’s plan to prohibit children from accessing social networks platforms such as X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram until their 16th birthday is politically popular. The opposition party says it would have done the same thing after winning elections due in a few months if the government had not acted first.

The leaders of all eight Australian states and territories unanimously supported the plan, although Tasmania, the smallest state, would have preferred the threshold to be set at 14.

But many experts in the technology and child protection fields reacted with concern. More than 140 of these experts have signed a open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, condemning the 16-year age limit as “too brutal an instrument to effectively deal with risks”.

Details of what is proposed and how it will be implemented are scarce. We will know more when the bill is presented to Parliament next week.

Leo Puglisi, a 17-year-old Melbourne student who founded online streaming service 6 News Australia when he was 11, laments that lawmakers imposing the ban lack the perspective on social media that young people have acquired growing up in the digital age.

“As far as the government and the Prime Minister are concerned, they didn’t grow up in the age of social media, they didn’t grow up in the age of social media, and what a lot of people here don’t understand , is that, like this, Whether it is or not, social networks are part of people’s daily lives, ”said Leo.

“It’s part of their communities, it’s part of work, it’s part of entertainment, it’s where they watch content – ​​young people don’t listen to the radio, read newspapers or watch TV. free television – and therefore this cannot be ignored. The reality is that this ban, if implemented, will only alienate young people who use social media,” Leo added.

Leo has been applauded for his work online. His home state, Victoria, nominated him for Young Australian of the Year price, which will be announced in January. His nomination credits his platform with “fostering a new generation of informed and critical thinkers.”

One of the proposal’s supporters, cybersecurity activist Sonya Ryan, knows from personal tragedy how dangerous social media can be for children.

His daughter Carly Ryan, aged 15, was murdered in 2007 in South Australia by a 50-year-old pedophile who posed as a teenager online. At a dark point in the digital age, Carly was the first person in Australia to be killed by an online predator.

“Children are exposed to harmful pornography, they are fed misinformation, there are body image issues, there is sextortion, online predators, bullying. There are so many different dangers they have to try to manage and kids just don’t have the skills or life experience to handle them well,” Sonya Ryan said.

“The result is we lose our children. Not only is what happened to Carly predatory behavior, but we are also seeing an alarming increase in youth suicide,” she added.

Sonya Ryan is part of a group advising the government on a national strategy to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in Australia.

She wholeheartedly supports Australia setting the age limit on social media at 16.

“We’re not going to get to that perfect outcome,” she said. “We need to make sure there are mechanisms in place to deal with what we already have, which is an anxious generation and a generation of kids addicted to social media.”

A major concern for social media users of all ages is the potential implications of privacy legislation.

Age estimation technology has been shown to be inaccurate, so digital ID appears to be the most likely option to ensure a user is at least 16 years old.

Australia Electronic Security Commissioner, an office that describes itself as the world’s first government agency dedicated to keeping people safe online, has suggested in its planning documents adopting the role of authenticator. The government would hold the identity data and the platforms would find out through the commissioner whether the potential account holder was 16 years old.

Tama Leaver, professor of internet studies at Curtin University, fears the government will force platforms to retain user identification data.

The government has already said it will be up to platforms, rather than children or their parents, to ensure everyone respects the age limit.

“The worst possible outcome seems to be one that the government could inadvertently push toward, which is that social media platforms themselves would end up being the arbiter of identity,” Leaver said.

“They would be holding identity documents, which would be absolutely terrible because they have a pretty poor record so far of keeping personal data properly,” he added.

Platforms will have one year once the legislation comes into force to determine how the ban can be implemented.

Ryan, who splits his time between Adelaide in South Australia and Fort Worth, Texas, said privacy concerns should not stop children from being removed from social media.

“What is the cost if we don’t do it? If we don’t put the safety of our children before profit and privacy? » she asked.