The Prime Minister has announced plans to trial a social media ban for children, with the goal of introducing nationwide legislation before the end of this year.
The ban would apply to children under the age of 14, with parental consent required for 14 and 15 year olds to partake in social media usage.
This is a worthwhile (and popular) trial for a federal government to conduct. If such laws are to be introduced they should be consistent nationally.
Anthony Albanese is showing leadership on this issue by following others.
South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas led the way on this issue, commissioning former High Court Chief Justice Robert French to write a 276 page report on the issue, and promising to introduce new state based laws in South Australia.
And federal opposition leader Peter Dutton committed to an age verification trial, if elected, back in November last year, adding a specific commitment to introducing social media age limits in June of this year.
The PM has now joined them with todays undertaking.
But there is no mortgage on good ideas, so Albo should be applauded for following Duttons lead, rather than simply dismissing the concept as unworkable because his political opponent thought of it first.
It is easier for the PM not to fall into that hyper-partisan trap given that his state Labor colleague Malinauskas was already on board, also using last weeks national cabinet to lobbying the PM to hurry up and join the party.
You lead, Ill follow. Anthony Albanese (pictured right) is following South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskass lead on social media age limits, promising a trial before new laws nationally
The role of an eminent legal scholar and practitioner like French in charting a legal pathway towards implementation and rollout of the policy is important, because social media giants are unlikely to automatically fall into line.
Meta in particular has shown an unwillingness to abide by domestic laws it feels might have a cascading impact on its business model globally.
The goal of bans and parental consent restrictions on social media for children is to reduce online bullying and encourage kids to partake in physical activities outdoors rather than remain captured by their electronic devices.
The PM used a conga line of media interviews today to make this point.
While social media has its problems, these sorts of arguments have been used before by politicians - such as when computer games arrived, or further back in time when televisions became a fixture in every home.
Malinauskas said yesterday when a product or service hurts children, governments must act. The evidence shows early access to addictive social media is causing our kids harm.
On the second point he is certainly correct, the evidence does show harmful effects by social media, especially on children.
On the first point, however, Malinauskas and other politicians are deeply inconsistent.
If governments must act when products or services cause harm to kids why dont we have bans on everything from sugary foods to fatty fast foods to gambling advertising?
Gambling is every bit as addictive as social media if not more so, and with far more negative consequences.
Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg (pictured) has been reluctant to accept domestic attempts to limit his business. How will he respond to Australian plans to impose social media age limits?
And what about easy access to pornography? While there are already self-regulated bans on such sites for under 18 year olds, we dont go any further than that.
Any child can click online that they are over 18 before watching all manner of explicit pornographic content without consequences. Its ridiculous.
The reason the government is now acting on the issue of social media and not all these other issues mentioned above is because it suits their political purposes.
Legacy media businesses have been complaining loudly for a long time now about the perverse impact social media is having on Australian society, including their business models.
Labor acting on this front is therefore likely to be met with applause by the same organisations that will be covering the next election. Albo hopes to score some political brownie points.
Lets call it soft diplomacy by the PM, which neatly also answers concerns parents have long had about their kids using social media too much.
The federal government is seeking a unified response on this issue - a compact between the Commonwealth and the states to achieve change. Cooperative federalism in action.
Banning social media for kids is therefore one of the few bipartisan issues both major parties leaders will agree on in the lead up to the next election.
A welcome break from the hyper partisanship and disagreements weve grown used to.