Australia says social media ban is 'for the nice of our youngsters' in new advert marketing campaign

[ad_1] SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia has launched a multimillion-dollar advertising and marketing marketing campaign that depicts its world-first ban on social media for youngsters as "for the nice of our youngsters" forward of its December begin date.

The A$14 million ($9.05 million) marketing campaign, titled “For The Good Of”, will roll out throughout TV, billboards, and “paradoxically” social media beginning Sunday, Communications Minister Anika Wells stated on Tuesday.

Wells stated the marketing campaign goals to unfold consciousness concerning the modifications coming for households, encouraging dad and mom to “begin having conversations” concerning the ban with their youngsters.

"It is known as For The Good Of, and it means for the nice of our youngsters. We’re doing this stuff, in the end, for the nice of younger individuals in Australia,” she instructed reporters.

The 45-second video reveals quite a few youngsters absorbed of their telephones whereas a voiceover says: “For the nice of Kirsty, for the nice of Lucy and Anya, for the nice of Sam, for the nice of Holly, for the nice of Noah, for the nice of their wellbeing.”

It then provides: “From December 10, individuals beneath the age of 16 will now not have entry to social media accounts. It’s a part of a brand new legislation to maintain under-16s safer on-line.”

Australia's ban was handed into legislation in November 2024 and goals to delay teenagers' capacity to arrange social media accounts from the present age of 13 till the age of 16.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's centre-left authorities stated analysis confirmed the over-use of social media was harming younger teenagers, together with inflicting misinformation, enabling bullying and dangerous depictions of physique picture.

Governments around the globe are intently watching Australia's implementation of the ban, whereas social media platforms have pushed again on it.

In a parliamentary listening to on Monday, YouTube stated the programme may have "unintended penalties" and could be “extraordinarily troublesome” to implement. The Alphabet-owned video-sharing website has additionally flagged taking authorized motion towards its inclusion within the ban.

Wells, the communications minister, stated she was assembly with social media platforms this week, together with Meta, TikTok and Snapchat, to "re-enforce the federal government’s expectation about how they are going to implement the legislation".