Australia’s ban on social media for children under the age of 16 is facing more and more backlash, with critics warning the legislation is less about child safety and more about ushering in a sweeping digital surveillance regime.

The legislation would prohibit anyone 15 or younger from creating or using social media platforms. But as Caldron Pool has long warned, enforcing such a ban would likely require users to verify their age, effectively linking their personal identity to their digital accounts.

“This is a Trojan horse,” Senator Alex Antic told Sky News host Rita Panahi. “This is nothing more than using age identification for personal identification, and we are creating a digital snare trap in this country.”

Antic, a longtime critic of such draconian legislation, warned that Australians could soon be required to verify their identity online for a wide range of activities—including, astonishingly, using search engines.

“That snare trap is closing on the internet and free speech in this country,” he said. “My job is to get out there and tell people what this is really about. It’s really about control of the narrative.”

Evelyn Rae, a commentator for Sky News and Caldron Pool, had also raised concerns on Sunday. She drew comparisons between the current legislation and the government’s heavy-handed tactics during the COVID pandemic, when restrictions were sold to the public as necessary to protect the elderly.

“We have to stop pretending that the people who are pushing this so hard are doing it to protect the children,” Rae said. While acknowledging that social media can pose risks to young people, she emphasised that the responsibility for managing children’s screen time lies with parents, not the government.

As Caldron Pool has previously reported, the Australian government and legacy media floated the idea back in 2022 of requiring all social media accounts to be tied to verified personal identification. The plan sparked immediate backlash over privacy concerns, but evidently, the push never fully disappeared—it simply rebranded.

Now, this “child-focused” legislation may quietly accomplish the same goal: ending online anonymity and consolidating unprecedented control over citizens’ digital lives. However it is framed, the result is ultimately the same—government gatekeeping of online speech.