Google and Facebook owner Meta Platform urged the Australian government on Tuesday to postpone a bill that would ban most forms of social media for children under the age of 16 and said it would take more time to assess its potential impact.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s central left government hopes to pass the bill, which represents the toughest control over children’s use of social media in any country by the end of parliament on Thursday.
The bill was proposed in Parliament last week and submitted its comments in just one day.
Google and Meta said in their submission that the government should wait for the age verification trial to proceed before proceeding.
Age verification systems may include biometric technology or government identification to implement a social media age cutoff.
“Without such an outcome, neither the industry nor the Australians will understand the nature or scale of the age guarantee required by the bill, nor the impact of such measures on Australians,” Mehta said.
“In its current form, the bill is inconsistent and invalid.”
The law will force social media platforms, rather than parents or children, to take reasonable steps to ensure age-verified protection. The company could be fined $49.5 million ($32 million or about Rs 27 billion).
The opposition Liberal Party is expected to support the bill, although some independent lawmakers accused the government of rushing through the process in about a week.
The Senate committee responsible for communicating legislation is scheduled to release a report Tuesday.
Bytedance’s Tiktok said the bill lacks clarity and has “significant focus” on the government’s plans to pass the bill without detailed consultation with experts, social media platforms, mental health organizations and young people.
Tiktok said: “In the case of a novel policy, it is important to draft legislation in a thorough and considered way to ensure it can achieve its established intentions. For the sake of this bill, it is not the case. in this way.”
Elon Musk’s X raised concerns that the bill would negatively affect the human rights of children and young people, including their freedom of speech and their right to access information.
American billionaires, who consider themselves a champion of freedom of speech, attacked the Australian government last week, saying the bill appears to be a backdoor way to control internet access.
©Thomson Reuters 2024
(This story has not been edited by Tech Word News’s staff and is automatically generated from the joint feed.)
