Australia’s social media ban carries health warning for Big Tech investors

{"text":[[{"start":5.38,"text":"Australia has given the world boomerangs, plastic money and black box flight recorders. Will its ban on social media for under-16s be its next gift?"}],[{"start":15.780000000000001,"text":"Australia implemented its ban, complete with robust age verification checks, this week. The EU, noting that all but 3 per cent of youths are online daily, is looking to follow suit, Denmark is already close to doing so. Even in the US, concerns over the addictive nature of social media apps are being aired in courts."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":39.16,"text":"Full-on lobbying by the 10 platforms caught in Australia’s net — including Meta Platforms, Snapchat and TikTok — shows how much is at stake. The trio each claimed between 200,000 and 450,000 youthful Aussie users during a parliamentary hearing in October. At the top end, that’s more than half the estimated population of 11 to 15-year-olds."}],[{"start":64.75999999999999,"text":"These numbers are catnip to advertisers. A study by Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health totted up $11bn of revenue from ads aimed at under-18s in the US in 2022. If the US accounts for a little more than two-fifths of global ad revenue for social media companies, as it does at Meta, that’s a total haul of almost $30bn in 2022."}],[{"start":91.39999999999999,"text":"Now double that, in line with Meta’s growth between 2022 and 2026, and platforms could pull in an aggregated $60bn from ads targeted at under-18s next year. If even half of that came from under-16s, that would be something in the region of 10 per cent of total revenue expected next year for platforms impacted."}],[{"start":116.35,"text":"There is some precedent for what a crackdown on minors’ online habits might look like for investors. Beijing began taking a broader swipe at its tech giants in the late 2010s, wiping $1tn of value off the sectors’ shares overall. Shares in sector giant Tencent more than halved in 2021 and 2022 after children’s gaming time was further curtailed. "}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":141.43,"text":"Washington would stop far short of Beijing’s purge, which hit online education and ride-hailing too. Still, Tencent’s US peers have few options beyond some serious lobbying. Of course, some wily children and teens will find ways around the ban, as they did to keep gaming in China, although Australia has stringent verification rules and some platforms will use facial recognition."}],[{"start":167.87,"text":"Last time social media was braced for ripples to emanate from Australia was when Canberra demanded tech giants pay for news content. That was adopted less vigorously beyond Australia, where Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp dominates the print market. This antipodean innovation is likely to find more receptive ears."}],[{"start":198.2,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1765765321_1306.mp3"}