PM’s social media ban like ‘whack-a-mole’

Facebook’s head of global affairs has called a proposed social media ban for Aussie teenagers a “whack-a-mole nightmare” for parents that would fail to stop children from using the app.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has proposed legislating a minimum age for social media use in a bid to restrict teenagers from using platforms like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram for their safety.

The proposed ban could target children as young as 14.

But Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global affairs, has accused the Prime Minister’s plan of lacking any outline or detail.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, would still comply with any laws passed but Mr Clegg said the ban would be pointless unless imposed at “chokepoints”, such as on Play or App stores or on the operating systems run by companies like Google and Apple.

Speaking at the Chatham House think tank in London, Mr Clegg said there were a “multitude of apps” used by teenagers and content would simply move from one app to another.

“If you ask each company to play whack-a-mole with these things, it’s going to be a nightmare for parents … because they have to do it on each single app,” the former leader of the Liberal Democrats in the UK said.

“If from a parental point of view, or indeed, from a government’s point of view, you really want to have control over who uses social apps or not, the only way you could just practically do it is through … where you actually download the apps from the app store.

“In as much as the debate unfolds in Australia and elsewhere, if you’re going to make a big move like that and say we decree at this point, you’ve got to make it workable.

“It’s got to cover all the apps that young people use, not just some of them.”

Mr Albanese has previously said he wants a “national” approach to the issue to ensure different states do not implement their own variations of social media bans.

“One of the things that the age verification trial will do is to look at, through real experience, and we’ve done a lot of work, like it’s at the final stage now of then going out and undertaking this trial,” he told NOVA FM earlier this week.

The Prime Minister has floated the idea of facial recognition technology being deployed to stop children from accessing certain apps, along with pornography.