Senator Ralph Babet will today introduce a bill to repeal the Albanese Government’s rushed, risky and fundamentally unworkable ban on under-16s using social media. Senator Babet warns of massive unintended consequences for all internet users with the Under-16 ban “This law was sold as child protection. In reality, it does the opposite. It is intrusive, it is dangerous, and it opens the door for future mass surveillance of every Australian,” Senator Babet said. “This is not about safety. This is the first step towards government-controlled speech on the internet, wrapped up in the language of ‘protecting the kids.’ We’ve seen that trick before. “The 2024 act forces social media companies to verify every user’s age, because you can’t verify if someone is under 16, without verifying the age of all over 16s. As a result of this act, adult Australians will be forced to hand over sensitive personal data. Once you create massive pools of age verification data, in time they will be breached …