Australian plans to ban children from social media are “well-intentioned” but will not make them safer, video streaming giant YouTube warned on Monday.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year introduced laws banning children under 16 from accessing social media by the end of 2025.
Popular platforms such as Facebook, TikTok and Instagram face heavy fines if they violate these laws.
YouTube, also included in the ban, claims that it is not a social media platform and should have some type of exception.
The firm’s spokeswoman, Rachel Lord, told a Senate committee on Monday that the laws are “well-intentioned” but could have “unintended consequences.”
“Not only will the legislation be extremely difficult to enforce, it fails to deliver on its promise of making children safer” online.
“Well-made legislation could be an effective tool (…) to make children and adolescents safe on the Internet, but the solution to give children security is not to prevent them from accessing the Internet,” he said.
Australia has been a leader in global efforts to regulate the internet for minors, but its current laws do not include details of how the ban will be enforced.
Some experts fear that the law will prove to be merely symbolic.
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