What to know about Australia’s new social media law: Should Canada do the same?

Heather Wright reports on Australia’s world-first law banning social media for kids under 16 and the Canadian mother pushing for similar protections.

With Australia’s social media ban for young people now in effect, there are some in Canada who hope similar legislation will be passed here.

“I do believe that kids are exposed to too much stuff,” says Amanda Ebeger, whose daughter was 11 when she began experiencing intense cyberbullying. “She was getting calls, she was getting harassed.”

Ebeger says classmates of her daughter began posting rumours about her on social media, bullying that became so intense her daughter began harming herself and even considered taking her own life.

“We took her to the hospital and she stayed there for the weekend and then after that I realized we can’t be here anymore,” Ebeger says.

The family has since moved to another part of the province, hoping to give their daughter a fresh start.

Australia’s legislation, the first of its kind in the world, aims to prevent that type of online bullying. It also wants to help shield young people from the apps that have been shown to cause increased rates of mental illness.

“Rising rates of depression, anxiety, loneliness, suicide. There’s also the cognitive effects from this,” says Jay Olson, a post-doctoral fellow in the department of psychology at the University of Toronto. Olson has conducted a number of studies into the impact of social media on young people.

“A lot of our participants also report that they have challenges concentrating at school,” he said.

Australia’s law, which was passed last year and went into effect today, bans children under the age of 16 from having social media. Enforcing this law falls on the tech companies, who must monitor user’s ages and remove accounts of those under 16. Companies that violate the law can be fined up to $49.5 million AUD (C$45.5 million).

New law an enforcement challenge

Critics say the law is an infringement and will be tough to enforce.

“(It’s) an extremely blunt tool to quite a complex web of different problems for young people,” says Matt Hatfield, executive director of Vancouver-based non-profit Open Media.

“It may help some of these problems partially, but I don’t think that it will deal with some of the other problems, and it could have some really unintended negative consequences,” Hatfield told CTV’s Your Morning Wednesday.

Among those unintended consequences could be kids losing important communication tools and young people being pushed to darker parts of the internet. Critics also argue kids will find a way to circumvent the age screening tools which include facial recognition technology.

But advocates say the bill is an important first step.

“It’s a start. And I think it’s a good start,” Ebeger says. “Bullying is never going to stop. It’s always it’s always been there. But (social media) now is taking it to a level that you can’t get away from it.”

Groups advocating for age limits in Canada say it’s just like controlling who can buy cigarettes and alcohol.

“Same as with alcohol and cigarettes, there are going to be kids who find a way but that doesn’t take away that we have proper legislation,” says Jenny Perez, the founder and national lead of Unplugged Canada. “We know that this is not necessarily the perfect solution but it’s going farther to help us better parent our children.”

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged the roll out of this law “won’t be perfect.” Advocates say any legislation must also be coupled with increased education about social media. They also want improved efforts to redirect children’s time to activities that don’t involve screens.

“Generally, whenever you have one of these large policy changes it’s going to help some people and harm some people,” says Olson. “So, I think Australia is making the bet that over the long term this is going to be more helpful than harmful.”

Several other countries, along with some Canadian provinces, are also considering implementing similar legislation and will be watching closely to see how this law unfolds in Australia.

“Australia is taking the lead trying something out that lots of other countries can learn from,” Olson says.

With files from CTV News’ Kristen Yu