Japan Ministry Seeks Talks on Social Media Age Restrictions

Tokyo, April 23 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s internal affairs ministry has asked a panel of experts to discuss whether the country should introduce age restrictions for social media use. In its draft proposals presented at a meeting Wednesday, the ministry also included a plan to ask social media service providers to assess the addiction risks associated with their services and disclose ways to implement functional restrictions aimed at preventing addiction. Meanwhile, the ministry expressed caution regarding the introduction of uniform age restrictions on social media use, similar to those implemented in Australia. Social media has become a means of communication for young people, and the risks for each service are different, the ministry said. At the meeting, a participant said that service providers should be obliged to verify users’ ages. In the draft, the ministry also said it would be appropriate to set parental control features to allow guardians to manage children’s social media use as a default setting when a user is identified as a child. The ministry also underlined the need for discussions on whether to mandate such features to prevent children from posting problematic images themselves, in addition to restricting inappropriate advertisements. The ministry aims to draw up a report as early as this summer, planning to outline a policy direction by the end of this year after coordination with relevant government ministries and agencies, including the Children and Families Agency. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]