MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — How do you remove children from the harms of social media? Politically the answer appears simple in Australia, but practically the solution could be far more difficult.
The Australian government’s plan to ban children from social media platforms including X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram until their 16th birthdays is politically popular. The opposition party says it would have done the same after winning elections due within months if the government hadn’t moved first.
The leaders of all eight Australian states and mainland territories have unanimously backed the plan, although Tasmania, the smallest state, would have preferred the threshold was set at 14.
But a vocal assortment of experts in the fields of technology and child welfare have responded with alarm. More than 140 such experts signed an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese condemning the 16-year age limit as “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.”
Details of what is proposed and how it will be implemented are scant. More will be known when legislation is introduced into the Parliament next week.
Leo Puglisi, a 17-year-old Melbourne student who founded online streaming service 6 News Australia at the age of 11, laments that lawmakers imposing the ban lack the perspective on social media that young people have gained by growing up in the digital age.
“With respect to the government and prime minister, they didn’t grow up in the social media age, they’re not growing up in the social media age, and what a lot of people are failing to understand here is that, like it or not, social media is a part of people’s daily lives,” Leo said.
“It’s part of their communities, it’s part of work, it’s part of entertainment, it’s where they watch content – young people aren’t listening to the radio or reading newspapers or watching free-to-air TV – and so it can’t be ignored. The reality is this ban, if implemented, is just kicking the can down the road for when a young person goes on social media,” Leo added.
Leo has been applauded for his work online. His home state Victoria nominated him for the Young Australian of the Year award, which will be announced in January. His nomination credits his platform with “fostering a new generation of informed, critical thinkers.”
One of the proposal's supporters, cyber safety campaigner Sonya Ryan, knows from personal tragedy how dangerous social media can be for children.
Her 15-year-old daughter Carly Ryan was murdered in 2007 in South Australia state by a 50-year-old pedophile who pretended to be a teenager online. In a grim milestone of the digital age, Carly was the first person in Australia to be killed by an online predator.
“Kids are being exposed to harmful pornography, they’re being fed misinformation, there are body image issues, there’s sextortion, online predators, bullying. There are so many different harms for them to try and manage and kids just don’t have the skills or the life experience to be able to manage those well,” Sonya Ryan said.
“The result of that is we’re losing our kids. Not only what happened to Carly, predatory behavior, but also we’re seeing an alarming rise in suicide of young people,” she added.
Sonya Ryan is part of a group advising the government on a national strategy to prevent and respond to child sexual abuse in Australia.
She wholeheartedly supports Australia setting the social media age limit at 16.
“We’re not going to get this perfect,” she said. “We have to make sure that there are mechanisms in place to deal with what we already have which is an anxious generation and an addicted generation of children to social media."
A major concern for social media users of all ages is the legislation’s potential privacy implications.
Age estimation technology has proved inaccurate, so digital identification appears to be the most likely option for assuring a user is at least 16.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, an office that describes itself as the world’s first government agency dedicated to keeping people safer online, has suggested in planning documents adopting the role of authenticator. The government would hold the identity data and the platforms would discover through the commissioner whether a potential account holder was 16.
Tama Leaver, professor of internet studies at Curtin University, fears that the government will make the platforms hold the users’ identification data instead.
The government has already said the onus will be on the platforms, rather than on children or their parents, to ensure everyone meets the age limit.
“The worst possible outcome seems to be the one that the government may be inadvertently pushing towards, which would be that the social media platforms themselves would end up being the identity arbiter,” Leaver said.
“They would be the holder of identity documents which would be absolutely terrible because they have a fairly poor track record so far of holding on to personal data well,” he added.
The platforms will have a year once the legislation has become law to work out how the ban can be implemented.
Ryan, who divides her time between Adelaide in South Australia and Fort Worth, Texas, said privacy concerns should not stand in the way of removing children from social media.
“What is the cost if we don’t? If we don’t put the safety of our children ahead of profit and privacy?” she asked.
Online safety advocate Sonya Ryan attends a press conference at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on June 15, 2021. Ryan knows from personal tragedy how dangerous social media can be for children. (Mick Tsikas/AAP Image via AP)
In this image made from video released by Leo Puglisi, 17-year-old Leo Puglisi records his online streaming news service 6 News Australia, from Melbourne, Australia in January 2024. (Leo Puglisi via AP)
LIMA, Peru (AP) — President Joe Biden arrived Thursday in Peru to start his six-day visit to Latin America for the final major international summits of his presidency, even as world leaders turn their attention to what Donald Trump’s return to the White House means for their countries.
The visit to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru and stops in the Amazon rainforest and at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Brazil offer Biden one of his last chances as president to meet with heads of state he’s worked with over the years.
But world leaders' eyes are firmly affixed on Trump.
They already are burning up Trump's phone with congratulatory talks. At least one leader, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, is dusting off his golf clubs, in case the chance to bond with the golf-loving Trump should present itself.
White House officials insist that Biden's visits will be substantive, with talks on climate issues, global infrastructure, counternarcotic efforts and one-on-one meetings with global leaders, including Chinese President Xi Jinping, and a joint meeting with South Korea's Yoon and Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
The meeting with Yoon and Ishiba would aim to solidify the progress made since their initial meeting last year, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One. That includes tightening security and economic cooperation amid increasingly tense relations with China and North Korea.
It also would be an opportunity for them to discuss North Korean troops going to Russia to help with the war in Ukraine, Sullivan said.
He says the Biden administration is working to ensure the three-country meeting is “an enduring feature of American policy.” He expects it would continue under Trump, noting its bipartisan support, but acknowledged it was up to the incoming president's team.
Biden's South American trip comes a day after he met with Trump in the White House. That wide-ranging discussion touched on the conflicts in Gaza, Lebanon and Ukraine.
“I wanted — I asked — for his views, and he gave them to me,” Trump told The New York Post after his conversation with Biden.
Sullivan indicated that White House officials also are making clear to Trump's team that the delicate U.S.-China relationship is the “paramount priority for the incoming administration.”
He stressed the risks if stability is upended in the Taiwan Strait: “that would be catastrophic for everyone involved — for Taiwan, for Beijing, for us, for the world,” he said. “Because of the size of the risk, even if it’s not that likely, it’s something that has to be at the top of the agenda.”
Beijing claims Taiwan as its own territory and vows to annex it — by force if necessary. The U.S. is Taiwan’s biggest unofficial ally and is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
Trump is nominating noted China hawks for key positions: Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for secretary of state and Florida Rep. Mike Waltz for his national security adviser.
The White House had been working for months to arrange the meeting with Xi, whose country is the United States' most prominent economic and national security competitor.
For Xi, front of mind will be Trump's campaign promise to impose 60% tariffs on Chinese imports. White House officials avoided commenting in detail about how Biden will approach conversations with Xi and other world leaders about Trump.
Those officials say Biden also will use the summits to press allies to keep up support for Ukraine as it tries to fend off Russia's invasion and not lose sight on finding an end to the wars in Lebanon and Gaza. That includes bringing home hostages held by Hamas for more than 13 months.
Between the summits, Biden will visit the Amazon rainforest, the first such visit by a sitting U.S. president.
James Bosworth, founder of the Latin America-focused political consultancy Hxagon, said Biden will use one of his last big moments in the international spotlight “to reassure the world that transitions of power are normal for democracies.”
“Biden will get public applause and praise, even as world leaders nervously await the transition,” Bosworth said.
Biden's meeting with Xi will likely be the most consequential moment during the American president's time in South America.
Biden has tried to maintain a steady relationship with Xi even as the U.S. administration repeatedly has raised concerns about what it sees as malign action by Beijing.
U.S. intelligence officials have assessed that China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry to use against Ukraine. The Biden administration last month imposed sanctions on two Chinese companies accused of directly helping Russia build long-range attack drones.
Tensions flared last year after Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed across the intercontinental United States. And the Biden administration has criticized Chinese military assertiveness toward Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.
During the campaign, Trump spoke of his personal connection with Xi, which started out well during the Republican's first term before becoming strained over disputes about trade and the origins of COVID-19.
In a congratulatory message to Trump, Xi called for the U.S. and China to manage their differences and get along in a new era, according to Chinese state media.
Biden finds himself in a similar position to when then-President Barack Obama traveled to Peru in 2016 for the annual APEC leaders gathering soon after Trump's first White House victory.
World leaders peppered Obama with questions about Trump's win would mean.
“His message was to wait and see ... because we didn’t know Donald Trump,” said Victor Cha, a National Security Council official in the George W. Bush administration. “Now we’re in a very different situation where we do know what the first Trump administration was like."
Associated Press writer Isabel DeBre in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.
U.S. President Joe Biden deplanes in Lima, Peru, to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
President Joe Biden walks with Peru's Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen as he arrives at Jorge Chavez International Airport in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, to attend the APEC Summit. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
U.S. President Joe Biden, left, Peru's Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen, center, and US Ambassador to Peru Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath wave on the airport tarmac ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
Air Force One takes off with President Joe Biden aboard at Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, en route to Lima, Peru to join other world leaders at the APEC Summit. (AP Photo/Jessica Rapfogel)
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One, with granddaughter Natalie Biden, to depart Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, en route to Lima, Peru to join other world leaders at the APEC Summit. (AP Photo/Jessica Rapfogel)
President Joe Biden boards Air Force One, with granddaughter Natalie Biden, to depart Joint Base Andrews, Md., Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, en route to Lima, Peru to join other world leaders at the APEC Summit. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)
President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
FILE - In this Saturday, June 29, 2019, file photo, U.S. President Donald Trump, left, meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, Japan.(AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - China's President Xi Jinping applauds during a signing ceremony with Peru's President Dina Boluarte at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Friday, June 28, 2024. (Jade Gao/Pool Photo via AP, File)
