‘We will no longer stand by’: Austria plans social media ban for under-14s

Austrian officials highlight addiction and ill-health while advocating for stricter age restrictions.Austria plans to ban children under 14 from using social media, with an official saying certain online sites are addictive and making young people “sick”.“Austria is introducing ‌a compulsory minimum age of 14 for the use of social media platforms,” conservative ⁠junior minister for digitisation, ⁠Alexander Proll, told a joint news ⁠conference on Friday.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3UK’s Starmer announces crackdown on AI chatbots in child safety pushlist 2 of 3US jury finds Elon Musk misled investors during Twitter purchaselist 3 of 3US jury orders Meta to pay $375m for endangering childrenend of listProell added that draft legislation ‌would be drawn up by June. Cabinet members ⁠from Austria’s two other governing parties were also in attendance.“We will ‌decisively protect children and young people in future from the negative effects of social media,” Vice Chancellor Andreas Babler of the Social Democrats said.“We will no longer stand by and watch while these platforms make our children addicted and often also sick … The risks associated ⁠with this use were ignored for ⁠long enough, and now it is time to act,” he added.Babler said the government would not list individual platforms the ban would apply to, but would ‌decide ‌based on how addictive their algorithms are and whether they include content such as “sexualised violence”.The announcement comes days after a Los Angeles jury found Alphabet’s Google and Meta liable for $6m in damages in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit.The case involved a 20-year-old woman who said she became addicted to the apps at a young age due to their platform design. Meta says it plans to appeal the decision.Also on Friday, the United Kingdom advised parents of children under five to limit screen time to a maximum of one hour per day.