SYDNEY, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Australia plans to set a

minimum age limit for children to use social media citing

concerns about mental and physical health, sparking a backlash

from digital rights advocates who warn the measure could drive

dangerous online activity underground.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his centre-left

government would run an age verification trial before

introducing age minimum laws for social media this year.

Albanese didn't specify an age but said it would likely be

between 14 and 16.

"I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy

fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts," Albanese

told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

"We want them to have real experiences with real people

because we know that social media is causing social harm," he

added.

The law would put Australia among the first countries in the

world to impose an age restriction on social media. Previous

attempts, including by the European Union, have failed following

complaints about reducing the online rights of minors.

Representatives of Meta, owner of Facebook and

Instagram, which has a self-imposed minimum age of 13, YouTube

owner Alphabet and TikTok were not immediately

available for comment.

Australia has one of the world's most online populations

with more than four-fifths of its 26 million people on social

media, according to government and tech industry figures.

Albanese announced the age restriction plan against the

backdrop of a parliamentary inquiry into social media's effects

on society, which has heard sometimes emotional testimony of

poor mental health impacts on teenagers.

But the inquiry has also heard concerns about whether a

lower age limit could be enforced and, if it is, whether it

would inadvertently harm younger people by encouraging them to

hide their online activity.

Australia's own internet regulator, the eSafety

Commissioner, warned in a June submission to the inquiry that

"restriction-based approaches may limit young people's access to

critical support" and push them to "less regulated

non-mainstream services".

The commissioner was not immediately available for comment

on Albanese's plan.

"This knee-jerk move ... threatens to create serious harm by

excluding young people from meaningful, healthy participation in

the digital world, potentially driving them to lower quality

online spaces," said Daniel Angus, director of the Queensland

University of Technology Digital Media Research Centre.

Jordy Kaufman, a psychology researcher at Swinburne

University, said that "for teens who gravitate to social media

because of their struggles, a ban could potentially worsen their

situation by reducing one of the interaction options available

to them".

A 2023 University of Sydney study found three quarters of

Australians aged 12 to 17 had used YouTube or Instagram.