Australians of all ages will be forced to show identification to use social media when the government’s controversial social media ban on under-16s comes into effect, a Labor minister has confirmed.
Greens senator David Shoebridge asked emergency management minister Jenny McAllister in the Senate on Tuesday whether Labor’s social media ban for teenagers and children, which critics fear will have the effect of making the government’s digital ID scheme mandatory, will require age verification.
Anthony Albanese’s social media ban on under-16s will result in all Australians needing to verify their age online, a Labor minister has confirmed.
The laws are expected to pass parliament due to the support of the Coalition.
Full details: https://t.co/mKA5k8SWQr pic.twitter.com/6bLlQcQ1Ip
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) November 11, 2024
In May Labor announced an “age assurance technology trial” and opened it to private companies to apply for funding via the government’s contracts portal AusTender, seeking software that could determine whether internet users are 18 or over, and whether users were in the 13 to 16 age range.
“If you are testing to see if someone if 13, or 14, or 15, or 16, you’re also testing to see, by definition, if they’re 16 plus. So if there’s going to be age verification, everybody is going to have to go through an age verification process, won’t they?” asked Mr Shoebridge, who voted in favour of the government’s Digital ID Bill last year.
“Yes,” replied Ms McAllister, who was representing Communications.
“So this isn’t just about the privacy or collecting data of our kids, this is literally everybody accessing social media, that’s how it has to work, isn’t it?” Mr Shoebridge asked.
“Senator Shoebridge, you just used the term ‘age verification’, you may not have been in the room when we had a discussion about the distinction between ‘age verification’ and ‘age assurance’, this is an age assurance trial,” Ms McAllister responded.
“If you’re going to have age assurance for kids 13, 14, 15, or 16, testing if they’re that age, you’re testing everyone’s age and you’re doing it at that level of age assurance,” Mr Shoebridge said.
“And that has privacy and data protection implications for literally everybody accessing social media, doesn’t it?”
The age limit is expected to pass parliament due to support from the Coalition, despite privacy and digital ID concerns along, and widespread unpopularity.
We welcome the Prime Minister’s support for the Coalition’s plan to set an age limit of 16 for Australians to access social media. pic.twitter.com/LVQlURmuQQ
— Liberal Party (@LiberalAus) November 8, 2024
“We welcome the Prime Minister’s support for the Coalition’s plan to set an age limit of 16 for Australians to access social media,” the Liberal Party said on Friday, provoking a huge backlash.
“Clown world,” wrote United Australia Party senator Ralph Babet in response, while others urged them to read their own and to listen to their own voters.
“All you are doing is laying the foundation for the end of conservatism,” said political commentator Alexandra Marshall.
“You are the useful idiots of the Left, cheering your own demise.”
Labor is also under fire from free speech advocates and civil libertarians over its proposed misinformation bill, which opponents have called “deeply flawed”, and incredibly dangerous.
“The idea of giving the government control over their version of the truth is extremely alarming,” independent senator Gerard Rennick said.
Questions have also been raised following the election of Donald Trump and his promises to roll back similar laws in the US about whether the Albanese government worked with the Biden administration to draft the misinformation legislation.
“Part of the reason there is such a huge push in the Trump camp to undo these misinformation laws is because they know … just how much work there was between the Biden White House and Facebook and pre-Elon Twitter to censor stuff about the Hunter laptop, which was basically election interference, as well as stuff about the pandemic,” journalist James Morrow said on Sky News Australia.
“When they start to dig through the files when the Trump administration comes to power I will bet you that there has been collusion between the Albanese Government and the Biden Administration on writing our misinformation bills in Australia.
“That should really be exposed because if that is the case we absolutely deserve to know what sort of global censorship regime are we getting involved in.”
James Morrow:
‘I will bet you there has been collusion between the Albanese Government and the Biden Administration on writing our misinformation laws in Australia.’
@pwafork #Outsiders pic.twitter.com/NkgyLcNpqA
— John Ruddick MLC (@JohnRuddick2) November 9, 2024
Header image: Anthony Albanese meeting Joe Biden in September (Facebook)
