Canberra [Australia], November 5 – Australia has defended its world-first ban on children under 16 holding social media account, arguing that the restrictions are necessary to protect young people’s developing brains from potential harm.
Government lawyers made the argument on Wednesday before the country’s High Court which is hearing two constitutional challenges to the ban introduced in December last year.
The challenges were filed by US-based online forum Reddit and Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project which argue that the restrictions violate an implied constitutional right to freedom of political communication.
Government lawyer Joanna Davidson outlined seven risks associated with social media platform features including addictive use, sleep disruption, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, disordered eating and worsening attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms.
Another government lawyer, Stephen Lloyd told the seven judges that the ban placed only a modest and indirect burden on political communication.
However Reddit’s lawyer, Perry Herzfeld, described the restrictions as overly broad and poorly targeted, arguing that the platform should not have been included among the 10 restricted services.
Platforms face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($34.5 million) for failing to take reasonable steps to remove underage accounts.
Government data showed that five million accounts had been closed by July. However, authorities acknowledged that some children continued to bypass age-verification systems.
The two-day hearing began on Tuesday, with a ruling expected to take several months.
