- India restrict Pakistan to 105-8 in Women's T20 World Cup
- England target repeat of Pakistan Test whitewash
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- Weary Sinner happy for day off after battling into Shanghai last 16
- Pakistan's Masood warns England still a force without Stokes
- Madrid's Carvajal to miss several months after serious knee injury
- Israel pounds Lebanon ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Two elephants die in flash flooding in northern Thailand
- Sabalenka targets world number one and Wuhan hat-trick
- Toddler among 4 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Tunisia votes with Saied set for re-election
- Bagnaia sets 'example' with Japan MotoGP win to cut gap on Martin
- Intense Israeli bombing rocks Beirut ahead of war anniversary
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- Lebanon state media says 'very violent' Israeli strikes hit south Beirut
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- Madrid beat Villarreal but Carvajal suffers knee injury
- Madrid beat Villarreal to move level with Liga leaders Barcelona
- Monaco take top spot in Ligue 1 with win at Rennes
- French rugby player on rape charge whistled but 'serene' on return
- Madrid beat Villarreal to level Liga leaders Barca
- Thuram treble fires Inter past Torino and up to second
- 'Fight': defiant Trump jets in to site of rally shooting
- Toddler among 3 dead in migrant Channel crossings
- Mexico City's new mayor sworn in with pledges on water, housing
- Israel on alert ahead of Hamas attack anniversary
- Guardians maul Tigers in MLB playoff series opener
- Macron criticises Israel on Gaza, Lebanon operations
- French rugby player whistled but 'serene' on return amid ongoing rape case
- Kovacic stars as Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- Retegui hat-trick fires five-star Atalanta to hammering of Genoa
- Heavyweights Australia, England off to World Cup winning starts
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- Man City sink Fulham to get title bid back on track
- France's Auradou whistled on Pau return in Perpignan loss amid ongoing rape case
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- Arsenal hit back in style after Southampton scare
Australia plans age limit to ban children from social media
Australia will ban children from using social media with a minimum age limit as high as 16, the prime minister said Tuesday, vowing to get kids off their devices and "onto the footy fields".
Federal legislation to keep children off social media will be introduced this year, Anthony Albanese said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a "scourge".
The minimum age for children to log into sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.
The prime minister said his own preference would be a block on users aged below 16.
An age verification trial to test various approaches is being conducted over the coming months, the centre-left leader said.
"I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts," Albanese said.
"We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm," he told national broadcaster ABC.
"This is a scourge. We know that there is mental health consequences for what many of the young people have had to deal with," he said.
- 'Reckless' -
Australia's conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton said he would support the government's proposed age limit.
"Every day of delay leaves young kids vulnerable to the harms of social media and the time for relying on tech companies to enforce age limits," he said.
Analysts warned, however, that an age limit may not help troubled children.
Daniel Angus, professor at Queensland University of Technology, said the government's plan was "reckless", coming before the final report of a joint parliamentary inquiry into the impact of social media on Australian society.
"This knee-jerk move undermines the joint inquiry and deliberative democratic principles and threatens to create serious harm by excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in the digital world," said Angus, who leads the university's digital media research centre.
The legislation could drive children to "lower quality online spaces", he said, "removing an important means of societal connection".
It is not even clear that the technology exists to reliably enforce such bans, said the University of Melbourne's associate professor in computing and information technology, Toby Murray.
"The government is currently trialling age assurance technology. But we already know that present age verification methods are unreliable, too easy to circumvent, or risk user privacy," he said.
But the prime minister said parents expected a response to online bullying and the access social media gave to harmful material.
"These social media companies think they're above everyone," he told a radio interviewer.
"Well, they have a social responsibility and at the moment, they're not exercising it. And we're determined to make sure that they do," he said.
L.Durand--AMWN