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Anika Wells, Communications Minister: Australia’s social media ban

Anika Wells, Communications Minister: Australia’s social media ban

The Interview vor 9 Monaten

Katy Watson speaks to Anika Wells, Australian Communication Minister about social media

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24:32

“This is giving parents another weapon in their arsenal for their
lives and for the happiness and mental wellbeing of their
children.”

Katy Watson speaks to Australia’s Communication Minister Anika
Wells about the world’s first social media ban for children under
16. Under the new law, social media companies will face fines of
up to about US $32 million if they fail to take steps to ensure
that under-16s in Australia cannot set up accounts. It has wide
public support and comes about after research shows that seven
out of ten Australian young people are suffering harm online.
However, the law has its opponents too, from those who fear
children could be cut off, or driven to darker, unregulated sites
to the huge international technology companies and even the US
President, but Anika Wells is undaunted. Her government wants to
promote the mental health of its young people, and she maintains
that even if the law is flawed, ‘Australians will look back and
ask, why did that take so long? Not why did they do that?’ The
Interview brings you conversations with people shaping our world,
from all over the world. The best interviews from the BBC. You
can listen on the BBC World Service on Mondays, Wednesdays and
Fridays at 0800 GMT. Or you can listen to The Interview as a
podcast, out three times a week on BBC Sounds or wherever you get
your podcasts.

Presenter: Katy Watson Producers: Simon Atkinson, Clare
Williamson & Farhana Haider Editor: Justine Lang

Get in touch with us on email TheInterview@bbc.co.uk and use the
hashtag #TheInterviewBBC on social media

(Image: Anika Wells. Credit: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)