‘I didn’t get to say goodbye’: Australia’s social media ban stirs unease, praise
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A message on a mobile phone from social media platform Snapchat after an account was locked for age verification in Sydney on Dec 9.
PHOTO: AFP
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SYDNEY - In the afternoon of Dec 9, Addison Grant, a 13-year-old in Perth, went to check her Snapchat account for what she thought would be her last time before Australia’s world-first ban on social media for under-16s began at midnight.
To her surprise, Addison discovered that she had already been locked out, as the platform had introduced the ban hours before the deadline.
“I wasn’t expecting it to come so soon,” she told The Straits Times, about 40 minutes after being barred. “I didn’t get to say goodbye to people.”
Addison was one of millions of children and teenagers affected by the ban, which started on Dec 10
The Federal Government imposed the ban to address concerns that social media platforms are being used for bullying, grooming and sexual extortion and are leading to a rise in youth suicide rates.
“This is a day in which my pride to be prime minister of Australia has never been greater,” Mr Anthony Albanese told reporters on Dec 10. “This reform will change lives for Australian kids and allow them to just have their childhood… It is about our families taking back control.”
The ban requires social media platforms to prevent under-16s having their own account or posting and commenting. Companies that fail to take “reasonable steps” to keep underage users off their platforms face fines of A$49.5 million (S$42.6 million).
Other countries such as Malaysia and Singapore
Mr Albanese told reporters: “The global community (is) looking at Australia and saying, ‘well, if Australia can do it, why can’t we?’”
But the ban has produced a mixed response among young people and parents.
Addison expressed support, saying that social media enabled cyberbullying and other harmful behaviour that outweighed the benefits of being able to keep in touch with others.
But others believe that the ban is excessive and will, in any case, fail to prevent young people accessing social media.
Ramsay Daglish, a 15-year-old in Melbourne, told ST he opposed the ban.
“I’m against it because it will be for the betterment of some but it will create its own issues,” he said. “The taboo of using social media will make it difficult for children to seek help when they are in a bad situation online.”
Ramsay’s sister Freya, aged 12, said the ban was “definitely bad”.
“It (social media) shouldn’t be taken away from kids because there are predators. We should focus more on the predators.”
The platforms are using various systems to verify ages, including biometric face and voice recognition, requiring users to provide documents to show their age, and inferring ages from a user’s word choice, browsing history or friends.
But many younger users are expected to flout the ban by using the logins of older siblings or parents, fake identification, VPNs to disguise their location, or apps that are not banned
The Federal Government confirmed on Dec 10 that the ban will not apply to under-16 tourists and short-term visitors but will apply to international students.
A spokesman for the government’s eSafety Commissioner told ST that platforms will use various kinds of technology to examine the user’s “usual country of residence”.
“This approach will… limit unintended disruption of services to people visiting the country for a short period,” the spokesman said.
“However, temporary visa holders, including international students, under the age of 16 who are living in Australia should be aware that their accounts may be flagged for age checks, deactivation or removal if platforms receive signals indicating they are in Australia for a significant period of time or indefinitely.”
Ms Tara Magdalinski, a Melbourne resident who has a 15-year-old son, told ST she believed the ban was a “bad idea” and would not put an end to harmful online behaviour.
“I understand the rationale and the motivations and the dangers of cyberbullying and predators online,” she said. “But we are not treating the cause. We are driving nasty behaviour underground.”
A survey published in The Sydney Morning Herald on Dec 8 found 67 per cent of Australians support the ban, with 15 per cent opposed and 18 per cent neutral or undecided.
But an online survey by ABC News of more than 17,000 young people aged nine to 15 found 70 per cent did not think the ban was a good idea, compared with 9 per cent who thought it was, and 21 per cent who were unsure. In addition, 72 per cent of young people did not think the ban would work to end social media use, 6 per cent thought it would, and 22 per cent were unsure.
Ms Magdalinski said she did not believe the ban will keep young people off social media, noting that the main conversation among her son Ares and his friends had been about finding “workarounds”.
She said he has had a phone since he was 13 but does not use it exclusively for social media and spends a lot of time on YouTube watching sports and gaming videos.
“Ares didn’t know a single person who hasn’t found a workaround,” she said.
“He and his friends don’t feel like there will be any material change.”
Asked how she felt about her son and others accessing banned apps, she said: “I feel it is no different to the way we used to sneak out if our parents said that we can’t meet our friends.”
Though Addison was frustrated at the sudden loss of her contacts, including cousins and friends across Australia with whom she keeps in touch on Snapchat, she said her immediate response to being barred from the app was that “it made me feel relieved”.
“It might sound strange,” she said. “People always expect you to be online and you have to answer straight away. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders.”
