What can California, other states learn from Australia’s youth social media crackdown? | #childpredator | #onlinepredator | #sextrafficing

(TNND) — Newly published survey results show that many Australians support youth social media restrictions, even as that country’s clampdown has produced questionable results.

The data on support for that country’s ban, along with its effectiveness, may preview what’s to come in California and perhaps other places in America looking to curtail youth social media use.

A California law aimed at making social media safer for kids is set to go into effect Jan. 1.

The bill’s lead author recently told The National News Desk that his social media “age-gating” bill was significantly modeled after the Australian law.

There are, however, key differences in the California law compared to Australia’s broader under-16 account restriction.

The California law targets so-called addictive features that have become part and parcel of social media apps: algorithms, infinite scroll, autoplay and notifications. The new California law requires social media platforms to delete the accounts of children under 16 if they can’t offer them a version free of the addictive features, as defined. Failure to do so could result in financial civil penalties.

“And we feel like we really truly found that secret spot,” Lowenthal previously said. “Instead of putting the onus on children and families, we’re putting the onus on the platforms themselves. They should not and cannot offer harmful and addictive features until children have the developmental ability to handle that. And we’ve determined that to be the age of 16. And we provide a pathway for them to be good actors by removing those features for young people. And as long as they do so, then children can continue to be in that ecosystem.”

Lowenthal also said the California bill was designed to serve as a blueprint for other states to adopt.

So, what can California and other states learn from Australia’s experience?

The Pew Research Center said Thursday that its survey found 82% of Australian adults support restricting access to social media for kids. That survey was conducted in March and April, several months after the Australian restrictions went into effect.

Meanwhile, another team of researchers surveyed Australian teens and found little compliance with the new social media restrictions.

Six months into the ban, the researchers found that over 90% of surveyed teens had used a restricted platform within the previous week.

The researchers estimated that just about 6% of Australian 14- and 15-year-olds were honoring the social media restrictions as of June.

The researchers found that the ban was easily circumvented, and kids saw the social costs of keeping off the platforms as too high when their friends kept using them.

The researchers found widely known and easily accessible workarounds – entering a false birthdate at signup, lying about age on verification prompts, using a parent’s or older sibling’s account, routing traffic through a virtual private network – let kids keep using social media platforms.

“The law can build a 10-foot fence, and someone will build an 11-foot ladder and get around whatever these laws are when it comes to restricting people by age,” said another social media expert, Andrew Selepak of the University of Florida.

Another Pew Research Center survey showed that most American adults also support a social media ban for kids under 16.

But with no federal restrictions, Selepak said states face a difficult “patchwork” approach to keeping kids off social media apps.

Photo illustration by Spencer Platt/Getty Images, file

And he said young people model the behavior of parents, older siblings and peers who are using full-feature versions of social media platforms, creating an “uphill battle” to restrictions that target only minors.

“It doesn’t mean that it’s not worth fighting, because, again, we are fairly confident on the negative aspects of social media for a lot of young people – not all, but for enough of them – that, again, you have parents and politicians all trying to find something (to help),” Selepak said.

California’s focus on addictive-feature design might be more workable than Australia’s broader ban, Selepak said.

And he expects the social media companies to largely comply with California’s rules, especially in the wake of recent court losses and settlements.

“I think they’ll go along to get along,” Selepak said. “And I think this is not just for shareholders, but also to kind of mitigate any upcoming fines, upcoming lawsuits.”