Amnesty International said Wednesday that the new Australian law prohibiting children and young people under 16 from using social media is an “ineffective quick fix” that will not prevent online harms.

The criticism was issued by Amnesty International’s technology division in response to a Australian law, effective December 10, which mandates that social media platforms prevent new accounts for underage users and remove existing ones—a model also currently under consideration by the European Union, Malaysia and other countries.

The government’s rationale for the ban, citing mental health concerns and a need to protect children from predatory algorithms, reveals a fundamental clash with digital rights advocates. Critics contend that such blunt restrictions infringe on children’s rights, are easily circumvented, and fail to address the root cause—namely the platforms’ own harmful business models designed to maximize engagement through data exploitation.

In a formal statement, Damini Satija, program director at Amnesty Tech, argued:

A ban is an ineffective quick fix that’s out of step with the realities of a generation that lives both on and offline. The most effective way to protect children and young people online is by protecting all social media users through better regulation, stronger data protection laws and better platform design.

Amnesty holds that the Australian government, and others considering similar bans, are responsible for pursuing a policy that, while well-intentioned, may ultimately leave young people more vulnerable by driving their online activity underground. Satija emphasized that young people have a fundamental right to expression, information, and participation under international frameworks like the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.