SWITCHING OFF SOCIALS Is Australia's planned ban for under-16s a simplistic solution to a complex issue?

Is Australia's planned ban for under-16s a simplistic solution to a complex issue?

- Jonathan Pearlman

SYDNEY - When the second of his three children turned 11 recently and received a smartphone as a birthday present, Sydney resident Jason Wong encouraged her to use it safely, knowing firsthand about the dangers she could now face.

Seven years ago, Mr. Wong noticed that his oldest daughter, who was then also 11, looked a little "off," and so he asked whether anything was wrong. It turned out that weeks earlier, she had experienced cyber bullying in a chat group.

"Someone started abusing her, calling her names," he told The Sunday Times.

"It was hard to take for her. She had never had someone talk like that before."

Mr. Wong, 53, a leadership coach, said he and his former wife had "regular check-ins" with their daughter and tried to deliver the message that "talking to people via digital communication is not the same as talking to them face to face."

Thankfully, he said, her social media use since that incident has been largely untroubled.

"Maybe that initial scare was something she needed to jolt some sense into her," he said.

But while the family handled that crisis themselves, it was growing public concern about such online harms and others that prompted Australia's federal government on Nov 21 to introduce a Bill to impose a ban on social media for people under the age of 16.

The proposed law imposes penalties of up to A$50 million (S$43.8 million) on platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X, and Instagram that fail to prevent young children from holding accounts.

Technology firms will be given a year to determine how to enforce a potential ban. Apps for messaging or education or entertainment will be exempt, including WhatsApp and YouTube.