{"id":3792,"date":"2026-11-04T11:03:49","date_gmt":"2026-11-04T06:03:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3792"},"modified":"2026-11-04T11:03:49","modified_gmt":"2026-11-04T06:03:49","slug":"australia-defends-teen-social-media-ban-in-top-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=3792","title":{"rendered":"Australia defends teen social media ban in top court"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Australia\u2019s world-first teen social media ban was a modest, non-partisan and justified curb on political expression, a lawyer for the government told the top \u200bcourt on Wednesday, rejecting a legal challenge by Reddit.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly a year after Australia banned large social media platforms from allowing under-16s to hold accounts, messaging platform Reddit and a libertarian advocacy group have sought to invalidate the law on grounds that it violates constitutionally protected speech.<\/p>\n

The government is defending the law, calling it a necessary harm minimisation measure.<\/p>\n

A \u200bwin for the plaintiffs would be a major setback not just for \u2060Australia but for lawmakers around the world who followed with similar measures in \u200bwhat has become a global movement to protect child physical and mental health in the \u200bdigital age.<\/p>\n

After a lawyer for Reddit told the court the law\u2019s imposition on free speech for minors was disproportionate to the benefits of keeping them off social media, Stephen Lloyd, for the government, \u200bsaid the ban was a relatively minor measure with proven positive effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe burden is \u200bindirect and modest in extent,\u201d Lloyd told the court\u2019s seven-judge panel on the second day of hearings.<\/p>\n

The \u200claw \u201cincrementally\u201d \u2060reduced children\u2019s ability to send and receive content online, while they could still view some content without an account, he added, noting it was \u201cviewpoint neutral\u201d so did not target any particular type of political expression.<\/p>\n

Under the law, children and caregivers face no punishment \u200b, but platforms can be \u200bfined up to A$99 \u2060million ($68.97 million) for systemic noncompliance.<\/p>\n

So far, multiple studies, including by Australian regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, have found that most of the \u200bcountry\u2019s under-16s still use social media, and the government has said \u200bit is \u2060preparing an enforcement lawsuit.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Lloyd said it was unclear if noncompliance was the result of weaknesses in age assurance technology or platforms\u2019 failure to implement it.<\/p>\n

Still, he added that \u2060the \u200blaw would contribute to the government\u2019s child protection aims \u200bregardless.<\/p>\n

Lawyers for some of Australia\u2019s eight states and territories were scheduled to address the court as the hearing \u200bcontinued.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australia\u2019s world-first teen social media ban was a modest, non-partisan and justified curb on political expression, a lawyer for the government told the top \u200bcourt on Wednesday, rejecting a legal challenge by Reddit. Nearly a year after Australia banned large social media platforms from allowing under-16s to hold accounts, messaging platform Reddit and a libertarian advocacy group have sought to invalidate the law on grounds that it violates constitutionally protected speech. The government is defending the law, calling it a necessary harm minimisation measure. A \u200bwin for the plaintiffs would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"gutentor_comment":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}