Australians like banning teens from social media. They just don’t think it’ll work

Australians doubt Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s world-leading plan to ban children from social media will work, and fewer than half would be willing to hand over their ID to tech companies if required under the new laws.

While findings from the latest Resolve Political Monitor show most Australians support the idea of banning social media for people under 16 years of age – which became a major plank of Albanese’s policy agenda in the second half of this year – they lack faith the government can execute it.

Resolve suggests most Australians back a social media block on teenagers – but are not sure if it will work.Credit: iStock, Nathan Perri

The findings highlight a risk for Labor and scepticism among voters as Albanese heads to the next election pursuing a broader tech crackdown, including a fresh proposal last week to force social media companies to pay for journalism through a new bargaining incentive.

The government has pitched itself as acting on reports of bullying, aggression, sexualisation and other challenges faced by young people on social media, as well as declining mental health. “Parents are worried sick about this,” Albanese said earlier this year. “The safety and mental and physical health of our young people is paramount.”

Most people agree: 58 per cent of people support the policy, including 67 per cent of Labor voters and 59 per cent of Coalition voters. Just 18 per cent don’t like it, and 24 per cent are unsure.

But Australians have low confidence it will work. As the world watches what happens next, 68 per cent of people said they didn’t expect it would be effective. Similar overseas schemes, such as the UK’s attempt to stop children watching online porn, have been unsuccessful.

Albanese has conceded new laws won’t “fix everything immediately”. “We have laws such as people can’t buy alcohol if they’re under 18, and from time to time that can be broken. But those laws set what the parameters are for our society, and they assist in ensuring the right outcomes,” he said last month.

Just a quarter of voters surveyed thought the plan could be executed effectively, and only 4 per cent were “very confident”. Most others – 68 per cent – did not think it would work. Just 8 per cent were unsure.

Parents were more likely to support banning children from social media, with 62 per cent in favour compared with 54 per cent of people without children. But they were less confident it could be put into practice: only 24 per cent of parents had any confidence in its efficacy, compared with 26 per cent without children.

The federal government did not stipulate how the ban should be enforced as it raced through legislation by year’s end. Instead, it will leave that decision up to the big technology companies and slap them with fines of up to $50 million if they fail to keep children off their platforms.

Some conservative MPs and digital rights activists have raised concerns about whether age-assurance technologies would need to be backed up by a digital ID, though Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has said people would not have to upload proof of identity directly to social media platforms.

Voters surveyed in the Resolve poll were split over whether they would hand their ID to social media platforms if required, with 42 per cent saying they were likely to do so but 45 per cent expressing reluctance.

Labor voters were most likely to comply, with 49 per cent saying they’d hand over identification if required, compared with 37 per cent who did not want to. Coalition voters were less keen, with 43 per cent willing to comply and 45 per cent reluctant.

People who did not vote for the major parties were least likely to say they would hand over ID: 51 per cent were reluctant, compared with 36 per cent who would comply.

Even though parents were more supportive of the plan, they were less likely than people without children to want to hand over identification (43 per cent versus 41 per cent).

However, handing over ID is not the only method social media companies could use to comply with the legislation.

Tony Allen, who leads the company that will trial technologies for the government, told this masthead there were three toolkit options for social media platforms.

The first is age verification: using a digital ID, driver’s licence, passport or other records. This could be done by third parties to avoid directly handing IDs to social media companies.

The second option is age estimation: tools that analyse biological or behavioural features that change with age, such as the depth of a person’s voice or their wrinkles. The third is age inference, which assumes someone’s age based on information, such as their purchase history or online activity.

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