The lower house of the Australian parliament has approved a ban on creating accounts on social networks for children under 16. This is reported by TASS.

102 out of 115 deputies voted in favor of the law. The Greens and a number of independent deputies voted against. If the bill is passed by the upper house of the Australian parliament, Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram platforms, Reddit and X will be forced to ban the registration of accounts by children under 16. In case of failure to comply with the law, the companies face a fine of 32.2 million dollars.

One of the initiators of the adoption of the law is Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who said that he expects its “unconditional approval” by the end of the week.

Lund University sociologist Roland Paulsen previously wrote in The Conversation about the devastating impact of social media on children’s mental health, noting that many European schools have banned smartphones for this reason. However, the expert noted that the increase in anxiety among children and young people cannot be attributed solely to technology.

According to the author, even before smartphones became widespread, there were differences in the prevalence of mental illness in low- and high-income countries. Residents of richer countries are more likely to have such disorders. This may mean that it is not smartphones that are causing depression and anxiety, but the growing intolerance of uncertainty, the obsession with risk avoidance and the general feeling of meaninglessness of work and life in general in the modern world.