The eSafety commissioner is pushing back on Albo and Dutton’s children social media ban plan

As both the prime minister and the opposition leader throw their support behind a social media ban for children under 16, the government’s own independent online safety regulator has publicly spurned the ban and raised the alarm about “unintended consequences”. 

Earlier this month, Anthony Albanese joined Peter Dutton by saying that a ban on children under the age of 16 from social media is a good idea “if it can be effective”. This support comes in response to Nova 96.9FM’s Michael “Wippa” Wipfli’s 36 Months and News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaigns, which seek to raise the minimum age for using social media because of fears about children’s wellbeing.