The technology company reddit filed an appeal on Friday to overturn Australia’s ban on social networking for minors under 16, just days after it became law.
The court document questions the general validity of the veto and argues that Reddit should be excluded from the list of banned platforms from the government because it is not an age-restricted application and the new legislation, considered historic, “violates the implicit freedom of political communication”.
This week Australia became the first country in the world to ban children and teenagers from accessing a range of popular apps and websites, including Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and X.
Under the law, 10 of the largest platforms, including TikTok, Meta’s Instagram and Alphabet’s YouTube, must ban access to underage users or face a fine of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (US$33 million). The government has stated that it will take time for platforms to establish the necessary processes to do this.
Reddit said in a statement that it agreed with the importance of protecting young people, but that the regulation would have the “unfortunate effect of imposing intrusive and potentially unsafe verification processes on both adults and minors.”
The company noted this The legislation could also result in young people being isolated participating in “age-appropriate community experiences” and “creating an illogical mosaic of included and non-included platforms.”
Reddit had previously assured that it would comply with the new Australian regulation, but warned that it was “legally flawed”.
The case is different from one filed by an online rights group early last month, which also seeks to overturn the legislation as an “unfair” attack on free speech.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese attacked on Thursday against young people who flaunt themselves on social networks A day after the ban came into force, he said that enforcing the law would always be complicated but would ultimately save lives.
A day after the law came into force with cross-party support from all major political parties and the support of almost three-quarters of Australian parents, The country’s social networks were flooded with comments from people who said they were under 16 years old.including one on the prime minister’s TikTok account that said: “I’m still here, waiting until I can vote.”
“Some young people who haven’t been removed from social media are sending out notifications bragging about it. That just tells the platforms who they are, so they get removed.”
Governments around the world have said they will keep an eye on Australia’s ban as they weigh whether to do something similar. Republican US Senator Josh Hawley supported the ban when it came into effect, the Nine newspaper reported, while France, Denmark, Malaysia and other countries said they planned to emulate the Australian model.
The Australian Internet regulator, the Electronic Safety Commissioner, will require all affected platforms to report the number of accounts of minors under 16 years of age in the days before and after the ban came into effect on Wednesday, Communications Minister Anika Wells said.
Albanese has portrayed the ban as a measure to protect young people from the mental health risks associated with social media, such as bullying, body image issues and addictive algorithms.
According to the governmentOn TikTok alone, around 200,000 accounts have been deactivated since the ban came into force.
Meta reiterated his opposition to the law, saying that some experts, advocates and parent groups are concerned that it drives teens into less regulated areas of the internet and that there is “little interest in enforcing it.”
“This will lead to inconsistent application of the law and will ultimately fail to improve the safety of young people,” a spokesman said.
TikTok and Snap, which owns Snapchat, declined to comment on enforcement of the law, while Australian companies YouTube,
The ban sparked passionate reactions from commentators around the world, including American psychologists Jonathan Haidt, his book The fearful generation (The Anxious Generation) played a prominent role in the Australian debate.
The ban is “the most significant measure to protect children from the harms of social media,” he wrote on social media.
The “Dr.” Phil McGraw, an American television host, said in an interview on NewsNation’s “On Balance with Leland Vittert” that the measure would “help tremendously and force them to interact with their surroundings, with friends, and go out into the real world.”
A week earlier, US television presenter Oprah Winfrey said the ban would change the lives of an entire generation.
The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF warned in a statement that the ban could encourage children to visit less regulated parts of the internet. and that it couldn’t work alone.
“Laws imposing age restrictions are not an alternative to companies improving platform design and content moderation,” the statement said.
During a visit to a school in Canberra, Mr Albanese said the ban would lead to better educational and behavioral outcomes as “better social interaction is achieved when students do not have to constantly look at their devices”.
Searches in Australia for virtual private networks (VPNs) that can hide an internet user’s location reached their highest level in about a decade in the week before the law came into effect, according to public data from Google.
All ten platforms named in the ban rejected the ban and then stated that they would comply with the ban. When the law came into effect, some platforms not affected by the ban rose to the top of the app download charts, prompting the Australian government to claim the platform list was “dynamic.”
One app, Lemon8, owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance, introduced a minimum age of 16. Photo-sharing app Yope told Reuters it had seen “very rapid growth” to about 100,000 Australian users. About half of the users were over 16 years old.
The company told Reuters it had told Australia’s internet regulator, which is overseeing the ban, that it was a private messaging service and not a social network.
With information from AFP and Reuters
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