“TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and others are too powerful, too addictive, too alluring and too often target our young kids. Parents cannot fight Big Tech alone.”
Emanuel – who is a former mayor of Chicago and was until this year the US ambassador to Japan – has said he is “in training” for a potential 2028 presidential run.
Senator Bernie Sanders says Australia is brave to enact the social media ban.Credit: Bloomberg
Veteran independent senator Bernie Sanders, who caucuses with the Democrats, told this masthead: “I applaud Australia for having the courage to understand the impact that social media is having on children.”
But asked if it was something he would support for American families, Sanders said: “That’s something I’d have to think about.”
Other Democrats were also uncertain about the idea. Senator Richard Blumenthal, who also sits on the Senate judiciary committee and participated in a hearing on online safety on Wednesday (AEDT), said age verification “doesn’t really work without really intrusive and strict methods of collecting information and then storing it – which could be problematic”.
Republican senator Ted Cruz pointed this masthead to an existing bill he is backing, the Kids Off Social Media Act, which would prohibit children under 13 from creating accounts. He said that was a more appropriate age cut-off.
Senator Ted Cruz would like to see a ban on children under 13 creating accounts.Credit: Bloomberg
Members of Congress are exploring measures to protect children from online harm, including from social media, and can expect to come under intense lobbying to push them away from an Australia-style ban.
On Wednesday, the Computer and Communications Industry Association circulated a briefing paper that said Australia’s policy deployed “structurally over-broad tools” that carried serious consequences for privacy, free speech, competition and global digital trade.
“Because the Act’s model is already spreading internationally, the US has a strategic interest in shaping implementation and promoting evidence-based, trade-facilitating alternatives,” the briefing paper said.
“Without careful engagement, the [ban] may become a global precedent for discriminatory regulation of US digital services.”
The lobby group’s briefing note highlights that Australia is “actively promoting its model abroad”, including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s speech to the United Nations, and says several other countries are considering a version of the policy.
“This heightens the risk that ‘minimum-age bans’ become a standard regulatory lever used to target foreign businesses, condition market access, or compel proprietary disclosures under the guise of online safety,” the group tells lawmakers.
The warning about discriminatory treatment of US companies comes as the Trump administration condemns policies it views as targeting American tech giants, including numerous Australian government initiatives.
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The Australian Financial Review reported last month that US State Department deputy secretary Christopher Landau and the US Trade Representative had contacted Australian ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd to complain about new laws requiring streaming services to invest a certain percentage of earnings or spending on local content, among other matters.
The Australian ban is also shaping a debate in the British parliament about whether to copy the changes across the UK, after a former British schools minister revealed plans to put the same kind of law to parliament in Westminster.
John Nash, who was a Conservative minister from 2013 to 2017, said Britain should adopt the Australian model.
“Today, Australia is making a brave stand, banning children under 16 from social media,” he wrote in The Times of London. He noted that several European countries were also aiming to do the same, and that the European Parliament backed the idea. His conclusion: “Britain is being left behind.”
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The stumbling block for Nash is Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who is showing no signs of picking up the policy from his friend Albanese. There is a chance, however, that support will build among backbench MPs in Westminster, just as it did in Australia.
With David Crowe
More social media ban stories
- Follow our live blog: All the latest news on the world-first social media ban is here. From how Australian teens are reacting to whether over-16s have had their social media accounts blocked, and what our politicians are saying.
- Your questions answered: How will age verification work? Why are X so silent? Where does my social media account go? Can I reactivate it? And much more. We have answered your most asked questions.
- A family talks the ban: ‘Tech bros have stolen my family’ v ‘Dad sits in bed on it watching Youtube’. A family has a very honest conversation about the impact of social media on their lives.
