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Amnesty International said Wednesday that the new Australian law prohibiting children and young people under 16 from using social media is an “ineffective quick fix” that will not prevent online harms.
The criticism was issued by Amnesty International’s technology division in response to a new Australian law, effective December 10, which mandates that social media platforms prevent new accounts for underage users and remove existing ones, a model also currently under consideration by the European Union, Malaysia, and other countries.
The government’s rationale for the ban, citing mental health concerns and a need to protect children from predatory algorithms, highlights a fundamental clash with digital rights advocates. Critics contend that such blunt restrictions infringe on children’s rights, are easily circumvented, and fail to address the root cause, namely the platforms’ own harmful business models designed to maximize engagement through data exploitation.
In a formal statement, Damini Satija, Programme Director at Amnesty Tech, argued:
The implementation of the ban is still a partial and contested solution because it addresses the symptom of youth exposure to harmful content but does not directly regulate the platform algorithms and data practices that constitute the core engine of those online harms. Even though the law imposes new obligations on social media companies, its enforcement and effectiveness are uncertain. As a result, the law may prove to be a partial instrument, unlikely to solve the complex problem it was designed to address.
The post Australia youth social media ban faces criticism over effectiveness appeared first on JURIST - News.
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The criticism was issued by Amnesty International’s technology division in response to a new Australian law, effective December 10, which mandates that social media platforms prevent new accounts for underage users and remove existing ones, a model also currently under consideration by the European Union, Malaysia, and other countries.
The government’s rationale for the ban, citing mental health concerns and a need to protect children from predatory algorithms, highlights a fundamental clash with digital rights advocates. Critics contend that such blunt restrictions infringe on children’s rights, are easily circumvented, and fail to address the root cause, namely the platforms’ own harmful business models designed to maximize engagement through data exploitation.
In a formal statement, Damini Satija, Programme Director at Amnesty Tech, argued:
Amnesty holds that the Australian government, and others considering similar bans, are responsible for pursuing a policy that, while well-intentioned, may ultimately leave young people more vulnerable by driving their online activity underground. Satija emphasized that young people have a fundamental right to expression, information, and participation under international frameworks like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The implementation of the ban is still a partial and contested solution because it addresses the symptom of youth exposure to harmful content but does not directly regulate the platform algorithms and data practices that constitute the core engine of those online harms. Even though the law imposes new obligations on social media companies, its enforcement and effectiveness are uncertain. As a result, the law may prove to be a partial instrument, unlikely to solve the complex problem it was designed to address.
The post Australia youth social media ban faces criticism over effectiveness appeared first on JURIST - News.
Continue reading...
Note: We don't have any responsibilities about this news. Its been posted here by Feed Reader and we had no controls and checking on it. And because News posted here will be deleted automatically after 21 days, threads are closed so that no one spend time to post and discuss here. You can always check the source and discuss in their site.