“There are things known and there are things unknown and in between are the doors of perception.” — Aldous Huxley

I’m Huxley Westemeier (26’) and welcome to “The Sift,” a weekly opinions column focused on the impacts and implications of new technologies.

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Australia really has it all: thousands of (slightly terrifying) bugs, kangaroos, gun control, and progressive social media bills. Who would’ve guessed?

In a law set to take effect in two years, new age limits in Australia will ban students through age 15 from using all forms of social media, even with parental approval. Tech companies that don’t meet regulations will also face a roughly $30 million USD fine. The bill was voted in by Australia’s Senate Nov. 28 and passed the House one day later to become an official ruling.

The ban is something that will happen, legislators say, but the logistics of how it will be implemented is an entirely different story.

On paper, the ban appears to completely shake up the entire social media landscape. First, the definition provided of what a ‘social media service’ is remains vague. It is likely to apply to media giants like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, but those companies aren’t explicitly mentioned. Online services that don’t require an account but offer similar user experiences to social media (think YouTube) would be exempt.

Despite the ambiguity, it would still impact the revenue of the largest companies. TikTok, for example, made over $16.1 billion in 2023 alone. A $30 million fine wouldn’t hurt their bottom line, but the loss in advertising revenue definitely would. In 2023, over 22% of users on TikTok were between the ages of 13-17, so a ban impacting almost 25% of TikTok’s total user base would have drastic economic consequences.

However, that’s assuming that all children under the age of 16 will be banned from using the app. Norway recently announced they are raising their age limit for social media use to 15 (up from 13). The announcement came after the country’s media authority noted that more than half of 9-year-old children in Norway were circumventing the policies.

If half of such a young population can figure out how to avoid the restrictions, Australia’s ban might be less effective than anticipated. While additional technology to verify a user’s age could be implemented, it’s likely that a new approach wouldn’t be fully accurate without resorting to ethically questionable practices such as facial recognition or even ID verification (scanning a birth certificate, for example).

Australia’s ban is a wonderful step forward. It’s well-intentioned to protect the mental health of young people. Restricting social media use for teenagers is a great idea in my opinion, especially for the “under-13” demographic, since it limits the amount of potentially harmful or misinformed information for younger kids to access. I know that my personal Instagram feed has become plagued with AI-generated videos and clickbait in the last few months. I’ve been using social media for long enough now that I’m able to recognize misleading content, but I can imagine how impossible it would be for a pre-teen, or even a 9-year-old, to do the same with no safeguards. While there are problems surrounding age verification, the bill is still progressive and will hopefully push other countries (the US?) in the right direction.