Australian opposition politician challenges age checks for social media

Australia’s Digital Freedom Project holds that the country’s age restrictions for social media, and mandated age verification to prove eligibility, violate its constitution.

The group cites warnings of potential clashes between in the incoming age check requirements for social media platforms and the International Covenant on the Rights of the Child. The Australian Human Rights Commission recommended last November that the government consider “introducing a statutory duty of care for social media companies” instead of passing the legislative amendments to ban young users.

“We’re defending your rights online” the group declares on its website.

So who is “we?”

Digital Freedom Project is registered to John Ruddick, author of “Make the Liberal Party Great Again” and a Libertarian member of New South Wales Legislative Council. It argues that the amendments fail a proportionality test because measures practiced somewhere “overseas” provide “less restrictive and workable alternatives.”

A court proceeding has been launched by the group with a pair of 15-year-olds as plaintiffs. One of the 15-year-olds said: “Driving us to fake profiles and VPNs is bad safety policy. Bring us into safer spaces, with rules that work: age‑appropriate features, privacy‑first age assurance, and fast takedowns,” and invoked George Orwell’s dystopian classic, 1984.

He does not provide specific points of comparison with the book, and since children’s speech is not referred to at any point in the narrative, and the internet is not referred to, observers are left to parse a comparison between the control of social and political interactions in the book and the need for the plaintiffs to wait for up to a year to post on Insta.

Ruddick argues that the restrictions amount to Australia’s government attempting to parent the nation’s children. Australian parents support the changes by a ratio of more than 3-to-1, with 68 percent telling a Bastion survey at the beginning of the year they favor a ban on social media for children under 16.

He’s hoping for an injunction to prevent the enforcement of the age assurance requirements on social media platforms (and possibly chatbots) from taking effect on December 10, and turning to American Tech Giants with “a very open invitation to get behind our challenge” with financial support, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Ruddick namechecks X Owner Elon Musk, whose platform requested a delay in the restrictions around the time allegations emerged of its AI chatbot creating child pornography.

The ban will drive teens to “an underground social media without parental supervision” Ruddick says.

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age verification  |  Australia  |  Australia age verification  |  lawsuit  |  legislation  |  Online Safety Act (Australia)  |  social media