Majority of Germans want Aussie-style social media ban

BERLIN: A large majority of Germans would support a law similar to what the Australian parliament passed today, restricting access to social media to those below 16, a survey published today showed, according to the German news agency dpa.

Some 77% of the nearly 2,000 respondents in the YouGov poll, seen by dpa, indicated that they would either “fully” or “somewhat” support such a law in Germany.

In contrast, 13% said they would either “fully” or “somewhat” oppose it.

The remaining said they didn’t know.

The Australian ban, approved by the senate on Thursday and passed by the House of Representatives yesterday, will take effect in one year.

It will impact platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, and X.

Exemptions will apply to health and education services, including YouTube, Messenger Kids, and WhatsApp.

It remains unclear how the measures will be implemented, but verification is set to be the tech companies’ responsibility – not parents.

There are no penalties for users, but companies could face fines in the millions for violations.

Most see social media as a negative for children, youth

Additionally, the survey showed that 82% are either “absolutely certain” or “somewhat certain” that social media has negative effects on children and adolescents, while 9% were either “certain” that platforms like TikTok, Instagram and Facebook do not have negative effects on children and teenagers, or answered the influence question with “rather no”.

The rest stated that they did not know enough about social media to be able to assess this or they responded with “don’t know”.