Australian teenagers under 16 are set to face a world-first social media ban from 10 December.
The legislation has left tech platforms such as TikTok and Meta scrambling to figure out how to implement the ban to avoid fines of up to £25 million.
The companies need to find ways to close existing accounts belonging to under-16s and stop new ones from being created as the legislation comes into effect.
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner says the restrictions “aim to protect young Australians from pressures and risks that users can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts”.
“These come from design features that encourage them to spend more time on screens, while also serving up content that can harm their health and wellbeing,” the commissioner adds.
The law is designed to protect children from potential mental health risks, cyber-bullying, and inappropriate content.
Australia’s 2021 census showed there are roughly 2.5 million eight to 15-year-olds in the country, and the government has estimated that 86 per cent of people in the age bracket use social media.
Which platforms will be affected?
The commissioner has determined that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X, YouTube, Kick, and Reddit are age-restricted platforms.
But more generally, age restrictions will apply to social media platforms that meet three specific conditions, unless the Australian government determines they should be excluded.
The conditions are:
Platforms are responsible for determining whether they fit the criteria and doing their own legal assessments.
What apps will not be age-restricted?
According to the commissioner, Discord, GitHub, Google Classroom, LEGO play, Messenger, Pinterest, Roblox, Steam and Steam Chat, WhatsApp, and YouTube Kids are among those that will not be age-restricted.
ESafety determined the list on 21 November, and said “there are no further assessments planned in the lead up” to the ban on 10 December.
However, the Australian government has indicated that it is a dynamic list and other platforms could be added at a later stage.
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What penalties could social media platforms face if they don’t comply?
Australia’s Online Safety Amendment Act 2024 requires companies to take “reasonable steps” to stop underage users from signing up and using their platform; they could face fines of up to $49.5 million (£25 million) for failing to comply.
How will age verification work?
This is the responsibility of each platform. However, the Australian government has said that requesting ID cannot be the only way to determine someone’s age.
Meta has said it will comply with the ban; however, in submissions to the Australian government last year, it said the legislation was “a missed opportunity and overlooks the practical reality of age assurance technology as well as the views of a majority of mental health and youth safety organisations in the country”.
Meta has said it expects issues with its technology, which could result in accounts belonging to people who are actually over 16 accidentally being shut down.
Meta previously confirmed that its users aged 13 to 15 would receive in-app messages or texts informing them their Facebook, Instagram and Threads accounts would be removed as early as 4 December. It said it would rely on age-estimation systems.
TikTok said in a statement that it will have a “multi-layered approach to age assurance,” while Snapchat will use behavioural signals to estimate ages.
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Is the move controversial?
As Meta did in its submissions to the Australian government, several other platforms have criticised the move.
Google and YouTube Australia’s public policy senior manager, Rachel Lord, said the site will automatically sign out users who are deemed to be under 16.
But, she said, they can still watch some YouTube videos while signed out, and parents will “lose their ability to supervise their teen or tween’s account” and use controls such as blocking channels.
Australia’s communications minister Anika Wells responded, saying it was “outright weird that YouTube is always at pains to remind us all how unsafe their platform is in a logged out state”.
There has been criticism of the government for excluding popular apps, particularly Yope and Lemon8, which are currently in the top 30 on the Australian iOS App Store, as kids look for alternatives.
Ms Wells told Australian media that “if we find that because they’ve been logged out of Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok [or] what have you, they end up on Lemon8, then we will look at whether the harm has transferred there and whether we need to add them to the list”.
Opposition leader Sussan Ley said she has “no confidence” that the social media ban would work.
Could the UK introduce a similar ban?
While Australia is leading the way in legislating age-restriction rules on under-16s, the UK is also navigating this type of discussion.
The government brought in the Online Safety Act in July, saying “the way children experience the internet will fundamentally change”.
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It included age restrictions effectively banning under-18s from seeing “the most harmful material on social media and other sites”.
The law is aimed at stopping children from watching “harmful content” including pornography, self-harm, suicide, hate speech and violence.
