The law banning social media in Australia for children under the age of 16 has passed the Senate. Social networks will have a year to implement tools to restrict access for children, after which the law will come into force. If nothing changes, Australia will be the first country to have such a law, the Associated Press reports.

As part of this law, social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, Reddit, and others will be forced to ban access to children under 16. In case of systemic violations of this law, companies can be fined up to 50 million Australian dollars ($33 million)

The Senate supported the law, with 34 senators voting in favor and 19 against. The House of Representatives also voted in favor of the law on Wednesday, showing strong support, with 102 votes in favor and 13 votes against.

The House of Representatives still has to approve the opposition’s amendments, but this is a formality, as the government has agreed that the amendments will be adopted. The opposition’s proposed amendments to the law aim to strengthen privacy protections, in particular, social networks will not be able to require users to show government-issued identification documents such as passports or driver’s licenses, and will not be able to require digital identification through government systems.

Critics of the law claim that the Australian government made a hasty decision to ban social media for children. Companies that run the platforms have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the law and called on the Senate to postpone the vote until at least June 2025.

The main concerns of the opposition to this law are that the ban on social networks will isolate children, deprive them of the positive aspects of social media, and “push them into the dark web.”