MELBOURNE, Dec. 12 (Xinhua) -- Almost four in five Australian adults support the federal government's new ban on social media use for children under 16, a survey showed Friday.
The survey of 1,598 Australian adults, funded by the Australian Research Council and conducted by Roy Morgan Research on behalf of Australia's Monash University, found that 79 percent supported the ban, which took effect on Wednesday.
Support was lowest among 18 to 24-year-olds at 72 percent, rising to 80 percent of those aged 50-64, and 87 percent among those aged 65 and older, the survey showed.
The ban is targeted at platforms that have received negative attention for their impact on young people, said Monash University Professor Mark Andrejevic, who leads a research team that commissioned the survey.
"This ban targets a handful of powerful, overseas platforms that profit from tracking young users to capture their attention and pepper them with ads," said Andrejevic, adding these apps are accused of exploiting young users with manipulative algorithms, unregulated advertising and misinformation.
"It's a timely intervention in an increasingly unregulated digital environment," he said.
Supporters cited risks to young users' mental health, bullying, extremist content, misinformation, and grooming by sexual predators, the survey said, adding opponents argued the ban infringes on parental rights and restricts social connectivity, especially for marginalized youth being excluded from finding likeminded people online.
Australia's move has shown bipartisan backing and drawn global attention as other countries, including the United States, consider similar legislation.
However, Reddit, one of 10 platforms covered by the ban, has filed a High Court challenge, arguing the restrictions misapply to its adult-focused forums, lacking "traditional" social media features that the government has taken issue with.
Last month, two 15-year-old Australian teenagers also filed a constitutional challenge against the social media ban in the High Court.
Under the new law, affected social media platforms are required to take reasonable steps to prevent users younger than 16 from creating or accessing accounts.
Platforms found to have committed serious breaches will face fines worth up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (33 million U.S. dollars). ■