A personal view of Australian and International Politics
Contemporary politics,local and international current affairs, science, music and extracts from the Queensland Newspaper "THE WORKER" documenting the proud history of the Labour Movement.
MAHATMA GANDHI ~ Truth never damages a cause that is just.
Palestinians held a funeral for Mohammad Odeh the day after he was killed by Israel. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa)
In short:
Dozens
of Palestinians have carried the body of Hamas' armed wing chief
through the streets of Gaza a day after he was killed by Israel.
Mohammad Odeh death comes little more than a week after his predecessor was killed in an Israeli strike.
What's next?
Israel says it will continue to target Hamas militant leaders.
An
Israeli air strike in Gaza has killed new Hamas leader Mohammed Odeh,
his wife and two of his children, the militant group has confirmed.
The
Israeli military said Odeh was killed in a targeted attack on Tuesday
night, local time, just over a week after his predecessor, Izz al-Din
al-Haddad, was killed in an Israeli strike.
The attack came on the eve of Eid al-Adha, a major Muslim holiday.
Dozens of Palestinians carried the body of Odeh through the streets of Gaza in a funeral procession on Wednesday.
Hours
after Odeh's funeral, the Israeli military said it targeted two Hamas
militants in a strike in northern Gaza, without disclosing their
identity.
At least seven people
were killed and more than 20 wounded in an Israeli strike on an
apartment in a building in Gaza on Wednesday evening, health officials
said.
Images from the scene
showed flames pouring from an upper-floor window of a building and
bystanders rushing to carry injured people, including children, to
waiting ambulances.
Smoke rises from a residential building following an Israeli strike in Gaza. (Reuters: Dawoud Abu Alkas)
Funeral procession
Mourners
covered the four bodies with green Hamas flags and marched from a
mosque through the city, chanting and firing shots in the air.
Some
carried posters with Odeh's photo, emblazoned with the words "one of
the chiefs of staffs of the Qassam Brigades," referring to Hamas's
military wing.
Hamas condemned
the strike and said Odeh had been active with the group for more than
three decades and was part of the first generation that helped establish
the movement's military wing.
Almost 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since the ceasefire was announced. (Reuters: Mahmoud Issa)
Sources
close to Hamas told Reuters that Odeh was possibly the last remaining
living member of the armed wing's higher leadership council.
Abu Al-Abd Odeh, one of Odeh's relatives, said Israel's campaign would not stop Palestinians from rising up.
"This
journey will not stop and the struggle of the Palestinian people will
continue on all levels," he said at a mosque in Gaza City during the
funeral.
Mr Katz called Odeh
"one of the architects" of the October 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel
that triggered the years-long war in Gaza.
He
said it was the fourth time Israel had killed the head of Hamas's
military wing since the start of the war. Izz al-Din al-Haddad, the
previous head, was killed on May 16.
Mr Katz said that Israel would continue to target Hamas leaders involved in the October 7 attack.
"We pledged that Hamas will not hold civilian or military rule," he wrote on X.
Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is preparing for elections in
October, also said that Israel would target everyone involved in the
October 7 attack.
Since the
October truce, Israel has killed about 900 Palestinians, according to
figures from Gazan health officials. The figures do not distinguish
between combatants and civilians.
Four Israeli soldiers have been killed by militants during the same period, according to the Israeli military.
Hamas
does not disclose figures for casualties among its fighters. Israel
says its post-ceasefire strikes are aimed at preventing attacks or
stopping people from approaching its armistice line with Hamas.
Israel
and Hamas are deadlocked in indirect talks over implementing the second
phase of a ceasefire deal, which includes the group's disarmament and
Israeli army withdrawals.
The ceasefire agreed in October left Israel in control of more than half of Gaza.
“We’ve tolerated this for too long,” Husic told Guardian Australia.
“We’ve
issued statements, and they’ve been important in terms of flagging our
view, but at some point the statements have got to end and the action
needs to begin.”
Husic said there was growing disquiet about Israel among Labor MPs, including after Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir,
taunted detained flotilla activists last week. The foreign minister,
Penny Wong, called in Israel’s ambassador over the incident, while she
and prime minister Anthony Albanese have condemned the actions.
Israel has denied allegations of mistreatment, claiming all prisoners and detainees were held “in accordance with the law”.
The
Israeli ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, said last week the
detained flotilla members were handled with “great sensitivity”.
Ben-Gvir was sanctioned by Australia in June 2025 for inciting violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.
Outspoken since returning to the backbench after the 2025 election, Husic said Australia and the international community had been warned about potential genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
“I
am concerned that history will not look favourably on us and members in
the international community that failed to act with vigour when they
were warned.
“We know our obligations under the genocide convention.”
Israel
has rejected the charge of genocide, citing its right to self-defence
after the Hamas attack on 7 October 2023 that killed 1,200 people,
mostly civilians, and took 251 hostages. The subsequent war in Gaza has killed more than 64,000 people, mostly civilians, and injured more than 160,000.
Speaking
after the defence minister, Richard Marles, explained Australia’s
position in a Labor caucus meeting this week, Husic said Israel’s
bombing campaign in southern Lebanon and its role in the war in Iran was
destabilising the international environment.
He
called for Australia to work with the European Union to coordinate
tougher sanctions, now former Hungarian leader Viktor Orban was out of
power. Earlier this month, EU members agreed to impose new sanctions on
Israeli settlers and leading Hamas figures.
“I’ve
said we should just ban any trade with illegal settlements, because
we’re effectively propping them up,” Husic said. “I’ve said that the
defence cooperation that we do with them should end, particularly
considering that ICJ has taken a view of plausible genocide.
“Longer term, if that is upheld, it will be a source of profound embarrassment for us.”
In
November 2024, the defence department confirmed it had amended or
lapsed at least 16 defence-related export permits to Israel as part of a
review of 66 “active” exports at the time.
Marles
defended Australia’s participation in the international F-35 fighter
jet program this week, including Australian-made parts included in the
supply chain for Israeli jets.
Australia is
party to the Joint Strike Fighter Program, meaning companies within the
country supply F-35 parts and components as part of a global supply
chain agreement.
Husic said the government was
hiding behind the complexity of that arrangement. Guardian Australia
reported on Tuesday that Marles told Labor MPs the F-35 capability was
“at the heart” of the Royal Australian Air Force’s operations and
restricting trade with Israel would be challenging due to treaty obligations.
“Enough is enough,” Husic said. “We should just say we are not going to supply those parts.”
He
called for the Australian federal police and the defence force to track
dual nationals, returning from Israel – if they had been involved in
the conflict – over concerns about their behaviour, including possible
targeting of pro-Palestinian campaigners.
“I’ve
said, it is time to establish a red line. There are a list of things we
could do, and we should start looking to do them,” Husic said.
Russia has been ramping up cyberattacks on the UK and its allies. (Reuters: Ramil Sitdikov)
In short:
The
head of UK intelligence agency GCHQ is warning that Moscow and other
adversaries could use artificial intelligence and other emerging
technology to conduct "hybrid warfare" against western allies.
Anne
Keast-Butler also said that British intelligence estimated that 500,000
Russians had been killed in the Ukraine war so far.
The warning came as the UK and Poland agreed to deepen their military and cyber cooperation.
Artificial
intelligence is "an unstoppable force" that is being weaponised in ways
that fall just short of traditional warfare, a British spy chief says,
as she reveals that nearly 500,000 Russians have so far died fighting in
Ukraine.
The warning, issued
by intelligence agency GCHQ's director, Anne Keast-Butler, was made on
the same day British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer signed a defence
pact with Poland.
The deal
would allow the two countries to combine their armed forces' expertise
and industrial capability, including developing and manufacturing
"next-generation complex weapons" to head off the threat of "Russian
aggression".
Ms Keast-Butler,
who heads up the UK's communications intelligence agency GCHQ, said
Britain and its allies were in "a space between peace and war" and
risked losing a conflict in cyberspace against Russia and other
adversaries unless they treat cybersecurity with much greater urgency.
"I've
spent three decades working in national security. And the risk of
miscalculation is as high as I've ever seen it," she said in a speech at
a World War II code-breaking centre near London.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is a former KGB agent. (Reuters: Sputnik/Sergey Guneev)
"Tech
companies are releasing AI-driven innovations at a remarkable pace,
with untold consequences, as algorithms are weaponised often just below
the threshold of traditional warfare.
"AI is an unstoppable force with great opportunity … but it is also a force with risks."
Ms
Keast-Butler singled out Russia as a threat, accusing Moscow of
"relentlessly targeting critical infrastructure, democratic processes,
supply chains and public trust" in Britain and Europe, as well as
stealing technology and plotting sabotage and assassination attempts.
"Russia
is scaling up its daily hybrid activity against the UK and Europe,
stretching from the seabed to cyberspace," she told an audience of
computing experts, diplomats, journalists and senior officials.
"One
area in sharp focus for us is protecting the data and energy flowing
through the critical cables and pipelines in and around British waters,"
she added.
"We do this by exposing Russia's intent, motive and underwater capabilities."
While
reiterating Britain's steadfast support for Ukraine, she also said that
new intelligence had shown almost half a million Russian soldiers had
been killed in Ukraine since the conflict began in 2022.
Neither
side publishes casualty figures and both accuse each other of
exaggerating their enemy's losses, while assessments by Western
intelligence officials and analysts agree that hundreds of thousands of
men have been killed and wounded on each side.
GCHQ,
short for Government Communications Headquarters, is the UK's
electronic and cyber-intelligence agency. It works alongside the
domestic security service MI5 and the foreign intelligence agency, MI6.
The
speech is the latest in a string of warnings from Western spies and
intelligence experts that Russia is stepping up hostile activity in a
"grey zone" that falls just below the threshold of war.
Poland-UK pact to 'challenge' Moscow
Ms
Keast-Butler's speech was handed down as Sir Keir met with Polish Prime
Minister Donald Tusk in London to sign a defensive pact, the latest in a
series that the UK has struck with European allies in recent years.
It
paves the way for large-scale joint exercises by land forces and for
London and Warsaw to boost the use of uncrewed systems to reinforce
NATO's eastern flank, it said.
NATO allies accuse Russia of using a shadow fleet of vessels to sabotage undersea cables and pipelines in the Baltic Sea. (Reuters: Annegret Hilse)
The
agreement's security elements will also bolster information-sharing and
other cooperation to tackle organised crime and aid joint work on
cyber, migration and health security.
Poland
— an EU and NATO member that shares its eastern border with Russia,
Belarus and Ukraine — also recently inked a deal in Paris to ramp up
joint defence ties.
"There's no
greater challenge for either of our countries than the challenge of
Russian aggression," Sir Keir, flanking Mr Tusk, said after signing the
treaty at a World War II-era bunker on a former military base in
northwest London.
"And we see that not just in Ukraine itself, but beyond Ukraine, impacting on our own countries," he said.
The UK prime minister called the treaty "a generational uplift" in the allies' security and defence relationship.
Mr
Tusk thanked Sir Keir for his commitment to defending "shared values"
like the rule of law, democracy and human rights, saying they were
"important for us and for our nations".
"That is the foundation of the treaty," he noted, speaking through an interpreter.
Israel has been intensifying its strikes in southern Lebanon in recent days. (Reuters: Rami Shlush)
In short:
Israel has told all residents in southern Lebanon they should evacuate north because of fighting with Hezbollah.
It is the first time Israel has taken such a step since a ceasefire came into effect in Lebanon.
Israel has in recent days intensified strikes on Hezbollah targets within Lebanon.
The
Israeli military has warned all residents of southern Lebanon to leave
the area following days of airstrikes, declaring the entire region a
"combat zone" as it targets militant group Hezbollah.
It
is the first time Israel has made such a sweeping demand since US
President Donald Trump announced in April a ceasefire had been imposed
in Lebanon.
In a post on social
media, the Arabic spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told
Lebanese residents they should evacuate north of the Zahrani River.
The
Lebanese community views those "evacuation warnings" as forced
displacement orders, and there are hundreds of thousands of people who
live in the area.
The demand to leave has been issued in the middle of the Eid-al-Adha Muslim holiday.
In
recent days, the Israeli military has intensified strikes on cities and
towns in southern Lebanon, as Hezbollah launched explosive drone
attacks against Israeli soldiers and communities in the north of the
country.
On Wednesday afternoon, the IDF launched strikes on the city of Tyre hours after warning of military action.
It also hit Nabatieh and a number of other villages in the south, and followed attacks further north in the Bekaa Valley.
Several children were among those killed in recent days, despite Israel's insistence it does not target civilians.
On
Tuesday, it was revealed Israeli troops had pushed further into
southern Lebanon, beyond the territory it seized and occupied after its
invasion of the country in March and the area it has continued to hold
since the Trump truce was declared.
In
addition to the threat of Hezbollah drones, some analysts have
suggested Israel is also trying to pressure Donald Trump to carve
Lebanon out of any deal with Iran to end the broader regional war, as
Iran
has demanded the conflict to Israel's north be included in any formal
end to fighting, while Israel has wanted it treated as a separate
conflict.
Strikes were seen being conducted across parts of Lebanon on Wednesday. (Reuters)
Israeli
media has been reporting deep concerns within Benjamin Netanyahu's
government and the country's military that the US may force it to stop
launching strikes in Lebanon.
The
chief of the IDF has reportedly urged the prime minister and the
security cabinet to authorise strikes on Beirut to send Hezbollah a
message.
Lebanese health
authorities say more than 3,200 people have been killed in Israeli
strikes since early March, when the latest conflict escalated.
Hundreds of those are women and children, and many health care workers are also among the dead.
Hezbollah
opened fire on Israel in solidarity with Tehran, days after Donald
Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu authorised strikes on Iran.
It
sparked an intense bombardment by Israel, which at its height had
forced the displacement of more than 1 million Lebanese and put immense
pressure on the country's struggling and, at times, non-existent social
welfare system.
The Israeli and
Lebanese governments have been engaged in peace talks since April,
hosted by the US, but those negotiations have not included Hezbollah.
It
was during those talks that Donald Trump announced a ceasefire in
Lebanon, but senior ministers in the Lebanese government have said the
terms of the truce give Israel free rein to attack whenever it perceives
a threat.
Mr Trump had told
Benjamin Netanyahu to show restraint after Israeli forces bombed more
than 100 different sites in the space of 10 minutes on the day the
ceasefire with Iran had come into force.
Lebanese health authorities said around 350 people were killed that day, including many civilians.
Some of the strikes hit densely packed residential areas in Beirut, without any warning.
Energy Minister Chris Bowen is reluctant to forecast what might happen in the years ahead. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
Two
giant chimneys towering over the site of the old Liddell coal-fired
power station came crashing down in a controlled demolition, on the very
day the first electricity price cut in years was finally confirmed.
For years, Liddell, in the NSW Hunter Valley, played a central role in the climate and energy wars.
When
AGL first announced plans for closure more than a decade ago, the
then-Coalition government went into a mild panic. Ministers tried to
shame the company into changing its mind, while some backbenchers talked
about either forcibly seizing Liddell or using taxpayer funds to build a
new coal plant on the site.
It achieved little beyond a brief extension of Liddell's operating life.
The generating units were finally switched off in 2023.
In
the weeks that followed the Liddell closure, the Coalition reached for a
new, crazy-brave policy idea. Taxpayer-funded nuclear power plants.
Peter Dutton nominated Liddell as the site where one such plant could be
easily plugged into the grid.
Former
Liberal leader Peter Dutton had nominated Liddell as the site where a
taxpayer-funded nuclear plant could be easily plugged into the grid. (ABC News: Matt Roberts )
In 2026, a battery bonanza is underway
Today, there is no nuclear plant at Liddell. Nor a new coal-fired power plant.
There is, however, a large-scale battery capable of supplying energy to 200,000 homes for two hours.
It's just one of the grid-scale batteries behind a battery bonanza underway in Australia.
According to
data from the Clean Energy Council (CEC) this week, investment in new
large-scale wind and solar fell in 2025 to one of its lowest levels in a
decade. It's a worrying drop, said the CEC, "threatening to stall
momentum, as energy demand continues to rise and coal-fired power
increasingly fails".
But when it comes to batteries, it's a very different story.
Home
battery installations surged 260 per cent last year, driven in large
part by government subsidies. The "Cheaper Home Batteries Program"
remains wildly popular and is now forecast to fund 2 million
installations at a taxpayer cost of $7.2 billion.
Large-scale
battery capacity also recorded extraordinary growth of 233 per cent
last year, driven by plunging costs and the speed of installation.
Amazingly,
Australia (55th in the world on population and 13th on economic size)
now ranks third in the world for grid-scale batteries, behind only China
and the United States.
Australia has quickly become a lithium-ion leader. The scale of this transformation was unforeseen only a few years ago.
Not a cheap exercise
As
critics of the energy transition regularly point out, this hasn't been
an inexpensive exercise. Renewables, batteries and transmission lines
are all coming at enormous cost. And fossil fuels are still needed to
keep the lights on.
But as
those Liddell chimneys were coming down on Tuesday, the Australian
Energy Regulator (AER) was confirming a potentially important shift.
The AER ordered a cut in the Default Market Offer (a benchmark for energy retailers) across several states.
The
reduction of up to 10.7 per cent for households and 20.9 per cent for
small businesses is the first drop in power prices since the start of
the war in Ukraine sent gas prices through the roof more than four years
ago.
AER Chair Clare Savage was clear about what's driving the reduction.
"A
big surge in batteries and solar into the system", she said, "is
displacing the need for more expensive gas-fired generation and hydro
generation at peak times".
In other words, batteries are flattening the peaks in demand, and prices are finally falling as a result.
A potential fork in the road
So, is this the turning point the government has been waiting for?
Savage is careful about predicting the future, noting there's still a risk of "global volatility" in the years ahead.
As the Iran war fuel shock has shown, the international environment is highly unpredictable.
Energy
Minister Chris Bowen is also reluctant to forecast what might happen in
the years ahead. No one wants to repeat the 2022 election campaign
mistake of promising power prices would fall by $275.
There's
also the unknown impact on prices from rising energy demand as the AI
data centre boom continues and more households shift to electric
vehicles.
But within
the government, there's quiet confidence the battery boom will continue
to gather pace and help shield Australia from both global shocks and
domestic demand surges, driving prices even lower.
Prices
are unlikely to fall all the way back to where they were before Labor
came to power in time for the next election in two years. But the
direction of prices will matter.
One
Nation, the Liberals and Nationals are all united on scrapping the
net-zero target and ending subsidies for both household batteries and
large-scale renewables. They see this week's energy price reduction as a
meaningless drop in the bucket and believe a return to more fossil
fuels is the answer.
But if
it's the start of a more permanent move to lower prices and greater grid
stability, thanks largely to battery take-up, this week could mark a
new chapter in the climate and energy wars.
David Speers is national political lead and host of Insiders, which airs on ABC TV at 9am on Sunday or on iview.
British
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to act on protecting children in
the United Kingdom from the harms of social media. (Reuters: Gareth Fuller)
British
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to introduce a "game changer"
social media policy that could extend beyond Australia's ban on
children aged under 16 accessing some online platforms.
On
Tuesday, local time, Mr Starmer met with the bereaved families of
children who lost their lives after viewing harmful content online.
Ahead
of the meeting he told reporters outside 10 Downing Street he would act
to protect British children from the harms of social media.
Keir Starmer pledged to act on advice whether the UK should implement a mandatory minimum age for social media use. (Reuters: Leon Neal)
"The question now is not whether we do something, we are going to act,"
he said.
"I'm absolutely clear that this needs to be something where there's a game changer."
Sir
Keir's comments came on the same day a three-month period closed for a
landmark government consultation that assessed possible paths of action
for social media restrictions.
The consultation that launched in March sought to examine whether the United Kingdom should follow Australia in implementing a mandatory minimum age of use
for social media, whether addictive features such as infinite scrolling
and autoplay should be curbed, and whether tighter restrictions on AI
chatbots and age verification should be introduced.
Sir Keir met with social media industry leaders in April to discuss a potential path of action. (Reuters: Leon Neal)
Sir Keir's government is expected to formally respond to the findings "in the summer, acting swiftly on the evidence gathered".
Former
health secretary Wes Streeting, considered by some to be a potential
political rival to Sir Keir, on Tuesday said the UK should look to go
further than a ban on under-16s accessing social media.
"Social
media should be treated like tobacco. It's extremely addictive, bad for
our health, and big tech is borrowing the big tobacco playbook to avoid
regulation,"
he said.
"We've got to give our children their childhood back. A ban of under-16s must be the start, not the end."
After Australia became the first nation to implement a ban on social media use other countries have considered following suit.
These are the measures that have been announced or are being considered around the world.
Australia's world-first ban
On December 10, 2025, Australia's social media ban came into effect and prevented children aged under 16 from holding or accessing accounts made on various social media platforms.
Over the two days that followed, federal government data showed more than 4.7 million accounts on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat were deactivated.
The
office of Australian eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant also
reported technology companies impacted by the new laws were making
"meaningful attempts" to prevent underage users from accessing their
accounts.
At the time Communications Minister Anika Wells described the numbers of deactivated accounts as a "huge achievement".
"We've
said from the beginning that we weren't expecting perfection straight
away, but early figures are showing this law is making a real,
meaningful difference," she said.
Despite that, in the months after the ban was implemented some teenagers reported being able to circumvent the restrictions and maintained access to their social media accounts.
How Europe has acted
In the days leading up to Australia's social media ban coming into effect the European Union flagged it was "watching and will be learning" from the impact of the new laws.
On
May 12, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said member
states would seek stronger protections for children, opening the door to
social media age limits for teenagers.
Ms
Von der Leyen said the commission would target "addictive and harmful
design practices" in its Digital Fairness Act, a planned law due to be
proposed later this year, while an expert panel prepared advice on how
to proceed.
The European Parliament also agreed in November on a resolution calling for a minimum age of 16 on social media.
It
urged a harmonised EU digital age limit of 13 for social media access
and an age limit of 13 for video-sharing services and "AI companions".
Elsewhere
in Europe, Denmark confirmed in November it would ban social media for
children aged under 15, although teens as young as 13 could access some
platforms with parental consent.
In France, the National Assembly voted in January to approve laws that would ban under-15s.
The
French Senate approved social media restrictions in April but adopted a
plan to introduce a two-tiered system to handle certain platforms
differently, rather than the National Assembly's push for a blanket age
ban.
The conflict means the future of the laws will likely remain undecided until 2027.
In
Germany, children aged between 13 and 16 are allowed to use social media
only if their parents provide consent, but child protection advocates
say the controls are insufficient.
Greece
announced plans in April to introduce a ban for under-15s which would
not take effect until January 2027, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis
said.
In Italy, under-14s are
legally required to have parental consent to use social media, while
Norway, Poland and Slovenia have all signalled they are preparing laws
that would restrict platform use for children under 15.
Restrictions
in Spain would ban children under 16 and new rules such as the mandated
inclusion of age verification systems are being prepared for certain
social media and AI platforms, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said in
February.
In April, the BBC reported Austria had announced plans in April for a ban for under-14s, while Turkish politicians passed a bill on April 22 to restrict platform use for children under 15.
Asian giants bring in bans
In
January the chief economic adviser of the world's most-populous nation
called for the implementation of age restrictions for social media use.
Indian
economist Venkatramanan Anantha Nageswaran described social media
companies as "predatory" in their methods to maintain a consistent,
engaged online audience.
Two months later India's southern state of Karnataka, the tech hub of Bengaluru, banned social media for under-16s although Chief Minister Siddaramaiah did not say when it would take effect.
In
China the country's cyberspace regulator introduced a so-called "minor
mode" program requiring device-level restrictions and app-specific rules
to restrict screen time depending on age, Reuters reported.
Indonesian
communications and digital affairs minister Meutya Hafid confirmed in
March the country will look to bring in a ban for under-16s on "high
risk" platforms, the BBC said, while Malaysia announced a similar measure in November in a bid to crack down on cyberbullying and scams, The Associated Press reported.
Some movement in The Americas
In
the United States, legislation that would force social media companies
to do more to protect child users have faced varying levels of
opposition along free speech grounds.
On May 12, Republican Senator Ted Cruz said he would support the Kids Online Safety Act
which would require social media companies to "exercise reasonable
care" in designing features that contribute to harming minors.
The bill is still being considered in a US congressional committee. It is a separate law to the US's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act which prevents companies from collecting personal data from children under 13 without parental consent.
In 2023, Utah became the first US state to pass a ban on users aged under 18 from using platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Facebook without parental consent.
Elsewhere in Latin America, Brazil is the only nation to have passed a dedicated social media restriction.
On March 17, the country's Digital Statute of Children and Adolescents came into effect requiring people aged under 16 to link their social media accounts to a legal guardian for supervision.
The
law also bans platforms using addictive features such as infinite
scrolling and video autoplay, while technology companies have to
introduce age verification mechanisms beyond a user self-declaration.
