Elon Musk’s X has called for a delay in Australia’s under-16s social media ban, arguing it has “serious concerns” about the lawfulness of the “punitive” policy.
X was one of over a dozen companies the eSafety commissioner wrote to earlier this month, asking whether they believed they should be required to ban children under 16 years of age from their platform from 10 December, when the law is due to come into effect.
The company has said in a submission to a Greens-led inquiry on age verification systems that compliance obligations for the ban should commence at least six months after the release of regulatory guidelines – which were issued this month – and there should be a grace period.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, has said that she does not intend to target companies for enforcement action immediately on 10 December, but will begin looking for “systemic failures” to comply with the regulations after that date. Under the legislation the commissioner can seek fines of up to $50m for non-compliance.
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In its submission, X said less than 1% of the platform’s Australian users were under 16, and while the company agrees strategies for mitigating the risk of harm to children are fundamental, it had concerns about the social media ban.
The company’s submission echoed similar concerns raised when the legislation was before the parliament.
“We have serious concerns as to the lawfulness of the Social Media Minimum Age, including its compatibility with other regulations and laws, including international human rights treaties to which Australia is a signatory,” X said in its submission published on Wednesday.
“We are especially concerned about the potential negative impact that the Social Media Minimum Age will have on the human rights of children and young people, including their rights to freedom of expression and access to information, principles which are enshrined in international treaties including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and which must be protected.”
X pointed to comments from the Australian Human Rights Commission in November expressing significant reservations about the legislation.
X argued age assurance for users was a disproportionate response, and there was no evidence banning young people from social media would work to protect young people online or reduce harms without creating new ones.
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“Not least amongst these concerns is the risk that when minors are barred from mainstream, regulated social media services, they will migrate to less moderated or entirely unregulated alternatives, thereby exposing them to greater potential harms including privacy breaches or unmoderated content,” X stated.
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Children could also evade the ban, X said, through the use of virtual private networks, for which X said there was no effective means of preventing, short of a full ban or more invasive measures.
The government failing to define which platforms the ban will apply to in the legislation “brings with it a significant risk of regulatory weaponisation”, X said.
This would set up a “punitive regime” that places the burden on responsibility for online activities of young people entirely on social networks, the company said, and “poses a major threat to freedom of information, speech, and access to the internet.”
X has argued the government should implement age assurance on the smartphone level – something other platforms, including Meta, have argued for.
The submission comes as the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and the communications minister, Anika Wells, are at the United Nations in New York to advocate for other countries to follow in Australia’s footsteps.
A spokesperson for Wells declined to comment, but pointed to comments made earlier this month where Wells said platforms “have no excuse not to be ready.”
