The federal Labor Government will introduce legislation later this year to impose minimum age restrictions for access to social media and certain social media features.
The scheme has been created with the intent of assisting parents and carers in the protection of children on difficult to regulate online spaces.
“The safety and mental and physical health of our young people is paramount,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
“We’re supporting parents and keeping kids safe by taking this action, because enough is enough.”
This decision comes after a South Australian trial of phone free public schools which, according to data provided by the Department of Education produced a substantial reduction in behavioural issues relating to social media, as well as a slight reduction of violent altercations within South Australian high schools over the course of a year.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has stated that the government intends on holding big tech companies responsible for the safety of users on their platforms
“Platforms and online services have a key responsibility for the safety of their users”, said Minister Rowland.
However, there are some concerns that these restrictions will impact the ability of young people to communicate with their peers, particularly for those living in regional and rural areas.
As society becomes increasingly digitised restricting young peoples access to technology in order to protect them, can have the unintended effect of leaving them behind.
17-year-old Kate Leung who has recently completed year 12 of high school, believes that this proposal has a lot of good potential, but if implemented incorrectly could seriously impact the way that young people interact and socialise.
“Through most of high school most people used social media to talk, not many people are using phone numbers to talk these days”, said Ms Leung.
“Lots of my friends live pretty far away, if social media has allowed us to keep in touch even if we didn’t see eachother at school”.