Voters are throwing their support behind Australia’s teen social media ban, although most are sceptical that it can work – and less than a third of parents are planning to fully enforce it, new polling shows. Source: The Age.
Nearly 70 per cent of voters back the world-leading ban, which is set to take full effect on Wednesday, but only 35 per cent are confident that social platforms will effectively block users under 16.
The polling, conducted by Resolve Political Monitor for The Age, found that 29 per cent of parents planned to fully enforce the ban by deleting apps off their kids’ phones, while 53 per cent said they would pick and choose what their child could access and that they would review parental controls. Thirteen per cent plan to take no action on the ban.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday claimed victory over tech giants such as Meta and Google, saying Australia’s initiative had won support in Europe, Asia and elsewhere.
Pushing back on complaints his government was too cautious, Mr Albanese said the move to protect children from tech giants was revolutionary.
“This can be a source of national pride,” he said on Sunday. “It’s a big reform that will impact not just this generation but ones to come.”
The survey of 1800 voters conducted last week showed 67 per cent in favour and just 15 per cent opposed (the remainder were undecided), adding weight to Labor’s strategy of relying on goodwill among parents to override concerns about whether the ban is practical.
This time last year, 58 per cent were supportive, indicating voters liked the idea the more they heard about it, a rarity in politics.
Mr Albanese and Communications Minister Anika Wells have said some teens would find ways around the ban, although easy workarounds in the early months might dent the ban’s credibility.
The onus is on tech firms, which have fought the laws, to implement age-gating technology for their apps.
Platforms captured by the laws include Snapchat with an estimated 440,000 under-16 users, Instagram with 350,000, TikTok with 200,000, Facebook with 150,000, as well as Kick, Reddit, X, YouTube and Threads.
FULL STORY
‘National pride’: Albanese hails teen social ban, but parents may not force kids to follow the law (By Paul Sakkal, The Age)
