Reddit Challenges Australia’s Underage Social Media Ban

Key Points

• Legal Challenge: Reddit has filed a lawsuit in Australia to contest the country’s ban on social media for users under 16, claiming it violates the constitution.
• First of Its Kind: The law, effective since December 10, mandates that platforms like Reddit prohibit underage users or face hefty fines.
• Privacy Concerns: Reddit highlights significant privacy and political expression issues arising from the law, emphasizing the need for young citizens to engage in political discourse.
• Defending Profits: The Australian government argues that Reddit’s lawsuit is primarily aimed at protecting its financial interests rather than advocating for children’s rights.

Reddit has filed a lawsuit in Australia’s High Court aiming to overturn the country’s under-16 social media ban, Reuters reported. The forum platform called the law contrary to Australia’s constitution as it intrudes on free political discourse. It also argued that Reddit shouldn’t have been included in the ban since it isn’t a social media site, based on the law’s definition. The action is likely to set in motion a protracted legal battle, given Reddit’s resources and its popularity in Australia.

Australia’s minimum age social media ban, the first of its kind in the world, went into effect on December 10. The ten platforms affected, including Reddit, must bar underage users or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million). Platforms are using a variety of means to determine age, including age inference based on activity and selfies.

However Reddit argued that the law comes with some “serious privacy and political expression issues” for users. “Australian citizens under the age of 16 will, within years if not months, become electors. The choices to be made by those citizens will be informed by political communication in which they engage prior to the age of 18,” it wrote in the filing.

The government disagreed, noting that Reddit filed the lawsuit to protect its profits, not children’s right to free expression. “It is action we saw time and time again by Big Tobacco against tobacco control and we are seeing it now by some social media or big tech giants,” said Health Minister Mark Butler.

With a market capitalization of $44 billion, Reddit certainly has the means to sustain a long fight. It would be motivated to do so as well, given that Australia is its fourth-largest market after Canada, the UK and the United States.