Anika Wells, Communications Minister: Australia’s social media ban

“This is giving parents another weapon in their arsenal for their lives and for the happiness and mental wellbeing of their children.”

Katy Watson speaks to Australia’s Communication Minister Anika Wells about the world’s first social media ban for children under 16.

Under the new law, social media companies will face fines of up to about US $32 million if they fail to take steps to ensure that under-16s in Australia cannot set up accounts. It has wide public support and comes about after research shows that seven out of ten Australian young people are suffering harm online.

However, the law has its opponents too, from those who fear children could be cut off, or driven to darker, unregulated sites to the huge international technology companies and even the US President, but Anika Wells is undaunted. Her government wants to promote the mental health of its young people, and she maintains that even if the law is flawed, ‘Australians will look back and ask, why did that take so long? Not why did they do that?’

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Presenter: Katy Watson
Producers: Simon Atkinson, Clare Williamson & Farhana Haider
Editor: Justine Lang

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(Image: Anika Wells. Credit: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)