MELBOURNE - Social media giants on Friday hit out at a landmark Australian law banning them from signing up under-16s, describing it as a rush job littered with"many unanswered questions".
The crackdown on sites like Facebook, Instagram and X, approved by parliament late Thursday, will lead to"better outcomes and less harm for young Australians", he told reporters. "It's entirely likely the ban could see young people pushed to darker corners of the internet where no community guidelines, safety tools, or protections exist," a TikTok spokesperson said.Tech companies said that despite the law's perceived shortcomings, they would engage with the government on shaping how it could be implemented in the next 12 months.
But the company added it was concerned"about the process, which rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people". "This ban risks pushing children into increasingly covert and unregulated online spaces as well as preventing them from accessing aspects of the online world essential to their wellbeing," she said.One of the biggest issues will be privacy -- what age-verification information is used, how it is collected and by whom.