{"id":57319,"date":"2024-11-29T09:49:36","date_gmt":"2024-11-29T09:49:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=57319"},"modified":"2024-11-29T09:49:36","modified_gmt":"2024-11-29T09:49:36","slug":"australia-bans-social-media-for-kids-under-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2024\/11\/29\/australia-bans-social-media-for-kids-under-16\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia Bans Social Media for Kids Under 16"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Gabriella Ogbu<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Australia&#8217;s parliament has passed a landmark law banning children under 16 from using social media, a world-first measure aimed at improving online safety.<\/p>\n<p>Set to take effect in 12 months, the law prohibits platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Reddit from allowing users under 16.<\/p>\n<p>Violators could face fines up to AU$50 million (US$32 million), though YouTube is exempt due to its educational content.<\/p>\n<p>The law responds to concerns from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the negative impact of social media on young Australians&#8217; mental health.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We want our children to experience a childhood,&#8221; he said after the bill\u2019s passage, which was approved 34-19.<\/p>\n<p>While some applaud the move, critics argue it could drive teens to more dangerous online spaces or increase social isolation.<\/p>\n<p>Amnesty International has also raised concerns about privacy risks from strict age-verification measures.<\/p>\n<p>The government now has a year to trial age-verification technologies before enforcement\u00a0begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Gabriella Ogbu Australia&#8217;s parliament has passed a landmark law banning children under 16 from using social media, a world-first measure aimed at improving online safety. Set to take effect in 12 months, the law prohibits platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Reddit from allowing users under 16. Violators could face [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":57320,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57321,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57319\/revisions\/57321"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}