Electronic Frontiers Australia (‘EFA’) believes the Prime Minister’s proposed bill to ban young people from social media is a tactic to pave the way for unpopular Digital ID for adults.
The default minimum age for social media platforms is already 13 to comply with the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), which prohibits the collection of personal information from individuals under this age without parental consent.
“Albo is like a bouncer making a big show of checking IDs at the main gates of a festival with knee-high fences,” said EFA Chair John Pane. “All it would actually change is adult behaviour, and that’s the real target — habituating Australians to something they would otherwise resist.”
National identification schemes remain as unpopular in Australia today as they were in 1985 when The Australia Card was proposed, and the added risks of data breaches hasn’t made Digital ID more appealing — a very real problem for a government hellbent on rolling it out.
The children most endangered by social media are those being monetised (in various ways) on accounts run by adults, including parents, which this proposal will do nothing to prevent. Some of this risk is a result of innocent ignorance — making public education vital.
While tech-savvy kids will get around any online restrictions in 5 mins flat, less technically-proficient kids in desperate circumstances who rely on online community for practical and emotional survival resources will be left behind — the impact on vulnerable young people will be a net loss.
EFA understands that parents are worried. That’s why we believe they deserve more than knee-jerk legislation—they require real resources and meaningful support to navigate the challenging digital environment. Digital tools to manage content are widely available and often built into devices’ default operating systems. Parents with digital skills and access to support are better prepared to make informed decisions and protect their children online.
“Abandoning parents to easily-circumvented state age-gating is no real improvement on just telling them that all they need to do is limit time spent online, which they’ve been hearing for 20 years now,” said EFA Chair John Pane. “Neither helps them understand how to make difficult decisions about content exposure, or how to talk to their kids about what they do see.”
It’s time for real solutions, not performative legislation. EFA calls on the government to invest in educating and supporting parents and the wider community, equipping them with the digital skills they need to protect children online. We urge the public to reject measures that exploit fears for children as a pretext to advance Digital ID and to demand meaningful, informed action that addresses the true risks in the digital landscape.
About EFA
EFA is a national, membership-based, not-for-profit organisation that promotes and protects human rights in a digital context.
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Media Contact
John Pane
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