Australia’s child social media ban is failing, and the Senate just delayed the fix

TL;DR

Australia’s Senate blocked amendments to strengthen the world-first child social media ban, sending the bill to an eight-week inquiry. Seven in 10 children who had accounts when the ban took effect in December are still on restricted platforms.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday condemned senators who blocked amendments to the country’s world-first social media ban for children, warning that the delay would give tech platforms time to destroy documents that could be used as evidence against them. The conservative Liberal Party and the minor Greens party referred the legislation to an eight-week Senate inquiry on Thursday.

The amendments would have expanded the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety watchdog, to enforce the ban that has prohibited children under 16 from holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube since December.

The enforcement gap

The ban looked effective on paper. The government...

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