Australian states back national plan to ban children younger than 16 from social media

Australia’s states and territories have unanimously backed a world-first national plan to ban children younger than 16 from most forms of social media.Leaders of the eight provinces held a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Friday to discuss a national approach to implementing proposed federal legislation that would make platforms including X, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook responsible for enforcing the age limit.The government leaders had been discussing for months setting a limit in the range of ages from 14 to 16 years.Albanese said while Tasmania would have preferred 14, the state was prepared to support 16 in the interests of achieving national uniformity.The legislation will be introduced into Parliament within two weeks.