American platform Reddit has asked the High Court of Australia to overturn a national ban on children’s access to social media, saying it threatens freedom of political expression.
American platform Reddit has asked the High Court of Australia to overturn a national ban on children’s access to social media, saying it threatens freedom of political expression.
The lawsuit comes days after the world’s first nationwide ban on social media for under-16s, Reuters reported. Reddit says the ban violates Australia’s constitutional guarantee of freedom of political expression. The company also said that even if the restrictions were to be upheld, the platform should be removed from the law because it does not meet the legal definition of a social network.
The Australian government and Communications Minister Anika Wells are defendants in the case. Government officials have already stated that the government «stands on the side of parents and children, not platforms» and is prepared to defend the law in court. Health Minister Mark Butler has publicly accused Reddit of trying to protect profits rather than the rights of minors, comparing the company’s actions to the practices of tobacco corporations.
The ban includes fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars for platforms that do not restrict access to children. Users themselves and their guardians are not responsible. Companies use age-determination tools: from analyzing online activity to checking selfies. Reddit believes that such mechanisms create privacy risks and can limit the participation of young people in public discussions, because it is up to the age of 18 that the political position of future voters is formed.
Australia’s ban on children’s access to social media came into effect on December 10, becoming the world’s first legally enforceable law. It was previously challenged by two teenagers, supported by a libertarian organization, and major platforms including Meta, Google and TikTok, have agreed to comply with the law after a year of lobbying.
Previously, dev.ua wrote about how Australia recruited over 7,000 new recruits to its army in a year, the highest figure in 15 years. Targeted advertising campaigns on TikTok and video games played a key role in this.
