Anthony Albanese backs facetious cash sweetener for tech companies to follow under-16 social media ban

Anthony Albanese supports a very tongue-in-cheek suggestion that tech giants will comply with an under-16s social media ban if the government coughs up $1000 per child kicked off each platform. Last week, federal parliament passed a world-first ban on children under-16 from having social media accounts. The Prime Minister spoke to radio station NovaFM on Tuesday morning, receiving praise from the show hosts, who suggested pushback from the tech companies could be averted by cash incentives. “TikTok, in particular, they recognised 76 million people last year that were underage. They have the technology to do it,” radio host Michael Wipfli said. “If we, for example, hypothetical, said to Meta ‘hey we’re going to give you $1000 for identifying every person under the age of 16’, how’d you reckon they’d go? I reckon they’d be pretty good at it,” Wipfli said. “That’s exactly right,” Mr Albanese said. “Well, we’ve given them a financial incentive to get this right as well because we want to make sure that the obligations were on the social media companies, not on parents.” Under the new laws, social media companies like Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, is required to prevent under-16s from using their services. Failing to comply brings the prospect of a $50m fine when the ban becomes active in no less than 12 months. The Australian Human Rights Commission and Meta both said the legislation was rushed. Meta also tried to suggest there was a “lack of evidence” to suggest social media had a causal link with children’s mental health. UK technology secretary Peter Kyle told the BBC the British government was in contact with Australian counterparts and considering similar laws. “As you’d expect, I’m really interested in what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and the evidence they’re basing it on,” he said.