Australia's under-16 social media ban faces its first big court test
Australia's High Court began hearing constitutional challenges on Tuesday to the country's world-first law barring children under 16 from holding accounts on 10 platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, X and Reddit. The Digital Freedom Project and Reddit argue the law unfairly burdens the freedom of political communication implied in Australia's constitution, while government lawyers say it is justified to protect children from online harm. Nearly 5 million accounts have been blocked since the ban took effect last December. Read at AP News →
Milton's Areopagitica
What happened then
In November 1644 the poet John Milton published Areopagitica, a pamphlet addressed to Parliament arguing against its Licensing Order of 1643, which required government approval before any book could be printed. It became one of history's most influential defenses of free expression.
What caused it
England was in the middle of its Civil War, and Parliament re-introduced the kind of pre-publication censorship that English rulers had used since Henry VIII. Milton had a personal stake: his own pamphlets defending divorce had met official disapproval, and critics pointed to them as proof that printing needed to be controlled.
How it was resolved
Milton argued that books should be judged and, if necessary, condemned after they appear, not banned in advance, and that people grow in virtue by meeting bad ideas and choosing the good. He insisted truth was strong enough to win in open debate. He published the pamphlet itself without a license, but Parliament was not persuaded, and licensing continued.
How it turned out
The licensing system finally ended in 1695, when Parliament chose not to renew it, about 50 years after Milton wrote. Areopagitica outlived the law it attacked and is still quoted whenever governments weigh protecting people from harmful content against the freedom to speak and to read.
Sources: Britannica: Areopagitica · Milton, Areopagitica (Project Gutenberg) · Wikipedia: Areopagitica
Further reading: Areopagitica and Other Writings by John Milton, edited by William Poole