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Are we ready for Australia's world-first social media ban? UNSW hosts critical conversation

UNSW Sydney

• Panel event to explore public and industry readiness for social media age limit
• Experts will address online risks and how to protect under-16s
• Event moderated by Professor Michael Salter, Director of Childlight East Asia and Pacific Hub

 

Australia will soon enforce world-first legislation, establishing a minimum age to create and maintain social media accounts. The policy, due to come into effect in December, has drawn both praise and criticism, with the Federal Government saying it’s part of a push to protect young people online.

 

Platforms will face multi-million-dollar fines if they don’t take reasonable steps to ensure children under 16 are not using their services. But questions remain over how the law will be policed and exactly which platforms will be affected.

 

One of the world’s leading authorities on child sexual exploitation and abuse, UNSW’s Professor Michael Salter, says the rapid increase in online sexual extortion illustrates the dangers of social media for children.

 

“Social media was made by adults, for adults, and aggressively marketed to children. The social media ‘ban’ is no different to the age ‘bans’ that we apply to alcohol, cigarettes or driving a car,” he says.

 

“It’s possible to design social media services that are safe and healthy for children. But companies have pursued profit above safety and encouraged children to use services where they can be easily targeted by adult perpetrators.”

 

Prof. Salter will moderate a distinguished panel of experts, analysing the role of social media regulation, how an age limit will work and if parents and guardians are prepared for the change.

 

Playground or Hunting Ground: Kids on Social Media is the final Legal Hour panel event of 2025. The bi-annual signature event showcases UNSW Law & Justice experts, alumni and community leaders in a conversation on major legal issues shaping Australia’s future.

 

The panel includes:

 

• Carolyn Jones, Principal Solicitor (Harm Practice), Youth Law Australia
• Associate Professor Katharine Kemp, UNSW Law & Justice
• Venessa Ninovic, Senior Intelligence Analyst for the New South Wales Police Force

Associate Professor Katharine Kemp leads UNSW’s Public Interest Law & Tech Initiative. She says the under-16s social media law goes both too far and not far enough.

“It’s overbroad in that it has an excessive impact on beneficial uses of some of these platform services by children and too great an impact on the privacy of all Australian internet users. The solution is also too narrow in that it fails to get to the heart of the matter: the deeply unsafe design of online spaces for any kids who get around the ban, or turn to even worse corners of the internet, or just turn 16,” A/Prof. Kemp says.

“The design of the law was rushed with an extraordinarily short consultation period of one day. This meant that the government didn’t hear from important experts, for example, from psychology, suicide prevention and children’s rights advocates.”

 

Media welcome to attend:

Time: Thursday 14 August, 6-8PM

Location: The Mint, 10 Macquarie St, Sydney

Contact details:

Interviews available on request. Please contact:

Ashleigh Steele
Communication Officer, UNSW Sydney
0421 208 805
[email protected]

Kate Newton
News & Content Officer,
UNSW Law & Justice
[email protected]