Australian kids could soon be on the hunt for some new hobbies.
What happened: The Australian government is introducing a law that would ban children under 16 from using social media, even if a parent gives their consent. The bill, which could become law next year, would be one of the strictest social media bans in the world.
- Australia is already trialling an age verification system to enforce the ban that uses biometric data and government IDs, methods no other country has used before.
Catch-up: Our friends down under are hardly the only ones trying to get kids to trade in their phones for fresh air. In Canada, most provinces rolled out or updated varying cell phone bans affecting schools this year, while Québec is considering an outright social media ban for kids under 16.
- The EU and U.S. have both introduced social media restrictions for kids under 13, while China wants teens limited to one or two hours of smartphone use a day.
Why it matters: The big problem with age restrictions has been trying to enforce them. If the Black Mirror-ish system in Australia works, it could quickly be adopted by other countries like Canada that are grappling with their own generation of chronically online children.—LA