Reddit on Friday filed a lawsuit in Australia’s highest court seeking to overturn the country’s social media ban for children, calling it an intrusion on free political discourse. The message board website which ranks Australia among its biggest markets, said in a High Court filing that the ban should be declared invalid because it interfered with free political communication implied by the country’s constitution.
Reddit argues that even if the court upheld the ban, it should be exempted since it did not meet the definition of social media, naming the Commonwealth of Australia and Communications Minister Anika Wells as defendants. In the 12-page filing, the company said barring under-16s would impede political discourse.
“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 said.
A spokesperson for Wells said the Australian government was “on the side of Australian parents and kids, not platforms” and would “stand firm to protect young Australians from experiencing harm on social media”.
Australia Social Media Ban
Australia went live with the world’s first legally enforced age minimum to access social media on December 10. Reddit and nine other platforms, including Instagram, YouTube and TikTok, campaigned against the measure for more than a year before ultimately saying they would comply.
The platforms are required to bar underage users or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million ($33 million), while underage users and their caregivers do not face punishment. Platforms say they are using measures like age inference, based on a person’s online activity, and age estimation, based on a selfie, to follow the rule.
