Announcement date
8 November 2024
Link to announcement
Minimum age for social media access to protect Australian kids | Prime Minister of Australia
Problem being addressed
The current social media landscape is exposing young Australians to a range of risks and harm. Young people are particularly vulnerable to the effects of online harm.
Currently in Australia there is no legislated minimum age for accessing social media. While all major social media services have minimum age requirements under their Terms of Service, existing safeguards to protect children from the negative impacts of social media are not in step with community expectations.
Proposal
The Government committed to introduce legislation in 2024 to enforce a minimum age for access to social media. Policy options explored in the IAE included:
Option 1 - status quo
Option 2 – minimum age of 16 with no parental consent
Option 3 – minimum age of 14 with parental consent required at 14 and 15 years old (South Australian proposal).
The preferred option was Option 2 – minimum age of 16 with no parental consent. The proposed legislation under this option would apply to specified social media platforms and include an exemption framework to accommodate access to social media services that demonstrate harm minimisation. The minimum age of 16 years old (without a parental consent) option is preferred as it achieves the most effective balance between protecting children from harm and preventing their isolation, without imposing additional burden on parents or carers or exposing users to increased privacy risks.
Consultation undertaken by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (DITRDCA) has highlighted support for a legislated minimum age to be somewhere between 14 and 16 years old, with some support for 18 years old.
Assessed Impact Analysis outcome
Impact Analysis Equivalent
Assessment comments
The Office of Impact Analysis (OIA) does not assess the quality of reviews and documents used in lieu of an Impact Analysis (IA). Impact Analysis Equivalents (IAE) are assessed by the OIA for relevance to the recommended option(s) and for the coverage of the seven Impact Analysis questions.
The OIA assessed that the South Australian Report of the Independent Legal Examination into Banning Children’s Access to Social Media, the Queensland Chief Health Officer – Position statement on social media and the mental health and wellbeing of young Queenslanders and the DITRDCA Age Assurance Trial Stakeholder Roundtables Summary, together with the additional analysis prepared by the DITRDCA on the IA questions are sufficiently relevant to the proposal to meet the requirements in the Australian Government Guide to Policy Impact Analysis. Analysis was also provided by the unpublished working document BETA Rapid Literature Review – Young people and social media.
Regulatory burden
DITRDCA estimates these measures will result in an increase in average regulatory costs of $6.69 million per year, over ten years.