Mike talks with Zaun Bhana, Technology Strategist and Managing Director of Leap Consulting, about the government’s proposed social media ban.

Choosing the right age to allow children to access social media fails to go far
enough to address how far behind we are in protecting those same kids from digital
harm, says Mr Bhana.

The Online Safety Act (2021) gives the eSafety Commissioner powers to react and
remove harmful content, but unlike the UK’s Online Safety Act (2023), it doesn’t
address critical areas deemed as lawful but harmful to children such as
disinformation, porn and gambling.

Significantly, the UK approach places emphasis on age assurance to protect
children from harmful content.

This includes requiring platforms to implement approved age verification or age
assurance mechanisms to ensure that children do not encounter harmful or
inappropriate content (such as pornography or violence).

Given that the average age children are first seeing pornography is 13, we must
make the right changes now.