Social media age limits in Norway & Australia

Abstract

This presentation will outline other examples of international policies aimed at protecting children and adolescents from being targets of tech companies, with a specific focus on the new social media age restrictions in Norway and Australia. In Norway, the government has ramped up its campaign towards enforcing a strict minimum age limit on social media use. It has been proposed that Norway's Personal Data Act which aims at protecting children from harmful content they may encounter online, will be raised from a minimum of 13 to 15 years of age. In 2024, the Australian Parliament passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024, to amend the Online Safety Act 2021. This new Bill establishes a minimum age for social media use and an obligation on providers of an age-restricted social media platform to take reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users from having an account with the platform. According to this Bill, age-restricted user means an Australian child who has not reached 16 years. In this presentation, the practicalities and challenges in implementing this Bill, will be outlined, based on the initial 12-month experience since its enactment.