Australia vows to enact minimum age on social media sites

SYDNEY - 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, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said, describing the impact of the sites on young people as a "scourge".

The minimum age for children to log into sites like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok has not been decided but is expected to be between 14 and 16 years, Albanese said.

An age verification trial will be conducted in the coming months before legislation is introduced by the end of this year, 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.

In a series of media interviews on the plan, Albanese said his own preference would be for a social media block on children younger than 16.