Elon Musk slams social media ban

Billionaire Elon Musk has taken aim at new Australian legislation banning people aged under 16 from using social media, which is now under scrutiny in federal parliament.

The owner of X, formerly known as Twitter, posted his response to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s plan to prohibit under 16s from accessing social media, warning the federal government aimed to go further.

“Seems like a backdoor way to control access to the Internet by all Australians,” Musk posted on X.

The technology billionaire has previously lambasted the Australian government for its social media misinformation legislation.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland yesterday introduced the world-first law into Parliament that would ban children under 16 from social media, saying online safety was one of parents’ toughest challenges.

She said TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram were among the platforms that would face fines of up to $50 million for systemic failures to prevent young children from holding accounts.

Rowland said others will have to refuse accounts for people aged under 16 – but they are the only ones who’ve been explicitly named by the government.

“This bill seeks to set a new normative value in society that accessing social media is not the defining feature of growing up in Australia,” Rowland told Parliament.

“There is wide acknowledgement that something must be done in the immediate term to help prevent young teens and children from being exposed to streams of content unfiltered and infinite,” she added.

While there is bipartisan political support for the proposed ban for teenagers to pass, the debate over whether it will actually curb the harm of social media continues.

The age limit is yet to pass parliament, so the details may yet change before they become law.

After it becomes law, the platforms would have one year to work out how to implement the age restriction.