The Australian government has introduced legislation prohibiting children under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms, a move now beginning to take effect on Wednesday, the 10th of December.

Alex Cooney, founder and CEO of CyberSafe Kids, discussed the implications of this legislation on The Anton Savage Show.

“It's early days, but we need to applaud them for their decisive action,” Cooney said. 

“While we’re all talking and worrying about what we might do, they’ve gone ahead and put a law in place effective from Wednesday. 

It’s definitely an interesting move.”

When asked about the reaction from teenagers, Cooney acknowledged there will be some push-back but noted that the legislation has generally received public support.

Cooney also acknowledged that issues will arise from this blanket ban:

“Meta has started freezing a lot of under-16 accounts,” she explained.

“So the day they turn 16, they’re thrown right back into those environments. 

That's the issue with it. It's blocking but it's not reforming.”

The discussion also turned to Ireland, where lawmakers are reportedly considering digital age checks on pornography websites. 

"Its kind of frustrating were only talking about this now," she said. 

"The digital service act, which is the European - wide framework, said that we could put in a place age to block access to pornography sites some time age."

Cooney highlighted that while countries like France, Spain, and Italy are moving quickly on these issues, Ireland remains behind. 

“We need to move faster. Blanket bans are tricky under the European Digital Services Act, which allows for case-by-case risk assessments,” she explained. 

“We need to find ways to protect children [online], similar to models in France or Spain.”

boy using iPad for online social media. Image: Alamy

Cooney also addressed the regulatory challenges that are associated with enforcing these rules. 

Many EU fines against social media companies have been tied up in legal disputes, proving the difficulty in achieving compliance with these regulations. 

“We absolutely need legal clarity,” she said, enphasising that without it, it could be ineffective. 

Looking ahead, Cooney warned that artificial intelligence and chat bots must also be regulated. 

“The longer we wait, the more children experience their childhoods through social media, often negatively,” she said. 

“We need guardrails to ensure that future generations are not impacted in the same way.”

Written by Annemarie Roberts