Belgium Social Media Ban Faces High Court Challenge
Belgium's law banning children under 16 from holding accounts on major social media platforms is facing a high-court challenge. The law was originally implemented to protect young people's mental health and online safety. The challenge was brought by teenagers, digital rights groups, and the platform Reddit. Tom Southstone, deputy chair of Digital Rights Watch Australia, is discussing the case. The case is currently facing judicial review in the high court. The argument centers on the Australian constitution, which implies a right to political speech. Proponents of the challenge argue the ban restricts the ability of young people to engage in political acts and speech. The legal proceedings are currently unfolding in Brussels.
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Sources · 7 independent
“the first country in the world to implement a ban on children under 16 from holding accounts on major social media platforms... the law is now facing a high-code challenge brought by teenagers, digital rights groups, and online platform Reddit”
“the law is now facing a high-code challenge brought by teenagers, digital rights groups, and online platform Reddit, who argue that the law infringes on key political freedoms”
“move was necessary to protect young people's mental health and online safety.”
“the law is now facing a high court challenge brought by teenagers, digital rights groups and online platform Reddit, who argue that the law infringes on key political freedoms”
“the law is now facing a high-code challenge brought by teenagers, digital rights groups, and online platform Reddit”
“It centres on part of the Australian constitution that implies a right to political speech. So the argument that they are making is that in banning young people from social media, the government has overstepped”
“the argument that they are making is that in banning young people from social media, the government has overstepped because it is restricting young people's ability to speak politically”
“So the legal challenge in this case is being brought by a group of libertarian politicians”
“the legal challenge in this case is being brought by a group of libertarian politicians... enforces a draconian age verification process.”
“the law is now facing a high court challenge brought by teenagers, digital rights groups and online platform Reddit, who argue that the law infringes on key political freedoms and enforces a draconian age verification process.”
“the social media ban doesn't stop the social media companies from doing any of that stuff. What it does is it allows us to kind of collectively pretend that young people are not seeing.”
“we know so far during the social media ban that it's not working and that young people are using social media platforms and they're still seeing all of that kind of horrible content”
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