--- author: TVO Today date: '2026-05-12' guest: '' layout: post.njk source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkk2wG-0Nv4 speaker: TVO Today tags: - social-media-ban-minors - child-online-safety - age-verification-challenges - regulatory-effectiveness - lessons-for-canada title: 澳大利亚未成年人社交媒体禁令：五个月实践与经验教训 summary: 澳大利亚于2025年率先实施了针对16岁以下未成年人的社交媒体禁令。采访专家Katrina Champion揭示了实施五个月后的初步情况：公众支持广泛，但专家对执行及隐私问题表示担忧。虽然约500万个账号被移除，但年龄验证系统普遍失效，许多未成年人仍能访问。专家强调需长期观察其对青少年福祉的影响，并建议加拿大等国关注数字素养教育，并推动科技公司承担平台责任，而非仅依赖禁令。 insight: '' draft: true series: '' category: politics-society area: society-thinking project: [] people: [] companies_orgs: - Esafety Commission - Stanford University products_models: [] media_books: [] status: evergreen --- ### 澳大利亚社交媒体禁令：初步反响与公众支持 澳大利亚于2025年率先在全球范围内实施了一项具有里程碑意义的法案，禁止16岁以下未成年人使用社交媒体。此举在社会上引起了广泛关注，并获得了相当程度的公众支持，尤其是家长群体。然而，与此同时，一些研究人员和专家对此禁令的实际操作性和有效性持谨慎甚至怀疑态度，他们更关注禁令将如何被执行以及在实际层面会产生何种效果。
Original English Australia was the first in the world when it banned social media for children under 16 back in 2025. We look at how it's played out since and what Canada can learn from their example. From Sydney, Australia. Katrina Champion is an associate professor at the University of Sydney's School of Public Health, and she joins me on the line. Great to have you, Katrina. How are you doing today? >> Well, thanks. Thanks for having me. >> Of course, give us a sense of how Australians have reacted since the ban has been put in place. It's been about five months, but what's the general conversation like? >> Yes. So it still is early days. We're about five months in to our social media ban here. And I would say certainly before the ban, there was quite wide spread public support, particularly by parents. They were quite eager to have this ban in place, understandably. But there were some people, like myself and other researchers and experts who were a bit sceptical, just curious about how this was all going to play out and how things would be enforced and how it would work on a practical level. So it's been quite interesting to watch and see what's happened.
### 禁令实施五个月：初步数据与成效评估 禁令实施约五个月后，即截至2026年3月，澳大利亚的**Esafety Commission**（独立的监管机构）发布了一份报告，显示已有约500万个针对16岁以下用户的账户被移除、限制或停用。这一数字在2025年12月中旬迅速出现，似乎预示着一个强有力的开端。然而，专家也同时指出，这仅是“账户”数量，而非“个体”数量，并且许多用户跨平台持有多个账户，因此实际受影响的独立个体数量可能低于此数据。尽管如此，科技公司采取行动本身被视为一种积极的正面结果。
Original English What I would say since December, what we're seeing is that there have been some action by the the platforms, the tech companies. So our Esafety Commission, which is the independent regulatory body in Australia that is responsible for this social media ban, released a report recently in March 2026. And what that showed us was that about 5 million accounts for people who were under the age of 16 have been removed, restricted or deactivated. And that happened quite quickly. That happened in about mid December. So there was quite this big initial response, I guess, and it sounds quite impressive, but I would just flag that this is accounts, not the number of people. And of course we know that many people hold multiple accounts across the different platforms. >> Then in terms of positives, I know that, as you mentioned, still early days, but have we seen some positive outcomes so far from the ban? >> I mean, I think that in itself is a positive outcome that the the big tech companies are actually doing something. Some of them have been compliant in terms of other positive outcomes. I do think it's a little bit too early to say on a small scale level. We have heard from some parents that their children have decided not to use social media anymore, but by and large, I think it's too early to tell.
### 执行机制、绕过策略与隐私担忧 禁令的执行责任主要落在各大社交媒体平台和科技公司身上，它们被要求采取“合理步骤”，阻止16岁以下用户创建或持有账户。**Esafety Commission**负责监督，但执行过程复杂且依赖具体情境，并非一刀切。尽管可能面临高达5000万美元的罚款，但现实情况是，许多未成年人仍能轻易绕过平台的年龄验证机制。这些机制，包括面部识别或身份ID验证，已被证明效果不佳，青少年能够利用年长朋友或家人的证件来规避。 这种绕过行为凸显了当前年龄验证系统的局限性。此外，强制要求进行年龄验证也引发了**隐私**方面的严重关切。为了验证年龄，平台需要收集敏感数据，这增加了潜在的**数据泄露**和**身份盗用**风险。因此，在保护青少年免受社交媒体潜在危害与防范新的隐私侵犯风险之间，存在一个微妙的平衡。
Original English And something I think that's important to point out is that a substantial proportion of young Australians under the age of 16 are still on social media. So different research studies. And that same report from the Esafety commissioner tells us that young people actually are continuing to be able to access social media and to have accounts, despite the the legislation. >> Well, help us understand what is being done with enforcement. What does that look like for an Australian who's under 16, who is logging into an account? What does that look like? >> So really the responsibility lies with the platforms, with the tech companies. So it's up to them to not allow under people under the age of 16 to create or have an account on their platform. They are meant to be taking reasonable steps. That's the language in the legislation to prevent people under the age of 16 from holding an account. In terms of who's responsible for monitoring and enforcing that. That comes back to the Esafety commissioner. So an independent regulatory body, and they are monitoring the platforms to make sure that they are taking these reasonable steps. That's where it starts to get a little bit complicated, because it's not a simple kind of one size fits all approach. From my understanding, it's quite context dependent. It's case by case. There needs to be a kind of body of evidence built up over time for them to then be able to enforce that platform. Who then can face fines up to nearly $50 million for non-compliance? >> Help us understand, is it I know this all depends on on the apps that people are using, but is it them kind of scrolling through sort of an age verification? Is it a photos facial recognition that is sort of at play? What is the actual sort of the nitty gritty on the apps? >> Yeah. So again, it depends on the app or the platform. It's up to them how they are being compliant. They are using a range of different age verification and age assurance systems to, to stay compliant. But that's where it seems to fall down a little bit. So we know that young people have been very easily able to circumvent these age verification processes. So there's facial recognition software that isn't particularly good. So young people have been able to get around that. And then in terms of ID verification checks, we know that young people have just been using older peers, IDs, their parents even. So, I think a real learning that's come out of that is that the age verification systems are not working very well at all. >> Fair to say that there isn't much stopping children from, you know, making fake accounts or accessing social media. >> It doesn't sound like it. It sounds like they can very easily get onto the apps and the platforms that they wanted to. So some young people even said that they, their accounts weren't deactivated, so they had no issues at all. Their accounts weren't blocked at all. And then the others who did face age verification barriers were able to get past them really quickly. >> Let's talk about on the other side of things, when we talk about privacy concerns, data collection, what has the public reaction been to those concerns? >> Yeah, I think there's been quite a bit of concern around the privacy issues. And that, again, comes back mainly to the age verification. I think, you know, enforcing this type of ban and, and being able to having to verify someone's age does require sensitive data. So these age assurance processes are really problematic. And there's risks of scams and data breaches. And it's really quite, quite messy, particularly when we're talking about about young people. So I think that there needs to be a bit of a balancing act here between trying to protect our young people from the harms, the potential harms of social media, without creating these new risks about privacy and data misuse and security.
### 对青少年福祉的影响与长期评估 关于该禁令对青少年**福祉**的实际影响，目前下结论为时过早。专家强调，需要更长周期的数据收集，以全面了解禁令对青少年心理健康、睡眠模式及体育活动等行为的潜在影响，因为这些方面往往因过度沉迷屏幕而被忽视。 值得注意的是，一项由**Stanford University**研究人员领导的正式评估正在进行中。该评估将跟踪约4000名10至16岁的青少年及其父母，持续两年。预计在今年晚些时候，随着初步数据的发布，将能更清晰地评估禁令在促进青少年健康与福祉方面的实际效果。
Original English >> Well, with that being said, what has the ban revealed sort of about the effectiveness effectiveness of a ban like this on the wellbeing of children and social media? >> So I think in terms of the impact of the ban on wellbeing, that's certainly too early to say. I think for that we need to be collecting data over a much longer period to be able to understand if there are any, any impacts on young people's mental health and wellbeing and also on their other health behaviours, such as their sleep and physical activity, which, you know, arguably are neglected when they're spending so much time on screens. We do know that there is a formal evaluation underway. So the E-safety commissioner has commissioned an evaluation led by researchers at Stanford University. So they're following a group of young people, 10 to 16, about 4000 of them and their parents over two years. And so I think once that data starts to come out later this year, I think it's expected we'll start to be able to have a bit of a better idea. On whether the the ban has had an impact on young people's health and wellbeing.
### 加拿大的经验借鉴与广泛批评 澳大利亚的禁令受到了全球目光的关注，特别是加拿大，正考虑是否效仿。专家建议，应将澳大利亚的经验视为一个长期的“试验田”，持谨慎态度，并等待更多数据出炉。在此期间，重点应放在加强对家长和青少年的**数字素养教育**上，使他们能更安全地驾驭在线空间。 此外，一个主要的批评点在于，仅仅限制访问和移除账户，并不能自动使社交媒体变得更安全。它无法消除潜在的有害内容、平台设计中的算法陷阱，如“无尽滚动”等，这些都可能加剧成瘾和负面体验。因此，除了禁令之外，更重要的是**推动科技公司承担起责任**，主动对平台进行改进和安全设计。
Original English >> As you know, all eyes have been on Australia in terms of looking at it from the from our side here in Canada. But a number of countries as to how Australia was going to do this, and I am curious, as we mentioned, still early days, but what lessons can Canada learn from Australia when it comes to this ban? >> Yeah, I think, again, I think we need to treat our test case here in Australia as a bit of a longer term experiment. Experiment. So I would, you know, say be a bit cautious, watch and wait wait for some more data to come out, which should be coming out later this year. There's lots and lots of research, including my own research at our centre at the University of Sydney that will be coming out over time, so we'll have a better picture then. In the meantime, I would say focus on digital literacy education for parents and teens, making sure that they have the best possible knowledge to to navigate online spaces safely, and also wanting to point out that even this one of the biggest criticisms of the ban is that limiting access and, and stopping young people from having accounts doesn't automatically make social media safer. It doesn't take away some of those harmful aspects. It doesn't reduce the actual content. It doesn't reduce the design features on the platforms and on the apps so that the algorithms, the endless scrolling. So I think I would also say that push push back against the big tech to make them put the responsibility back on the platforms to make them make changes as well as, as well as these bans. >> Katrina. We are going to leave it there, but I really appreciate your time to chat about Australia's social media ban so far. Thank you so much. >> Thanks for having me.