Social Media Bans for Youth are Coming in Australia

Australia faces the risk of young users losing their social media accounts starting December 10. Online platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Meta, and Instagram will issue warnings for over a million teenager accounts across the country.

Users under the age of 16 have three options: Download their data, freeze their profiles, or lose everything. This represents a global first in banning young people from using social media. There are no major changes expected for the other 20 million social media users in Australia.

This step ensures that the country is in a priority position when it comes to protecting young people from online risks. Recently, platforms had pointed out the chaos potential due to fears of losing users and facing a $32 million fine if they violate the rules.

The platforms have stated that necessary age verification checks will require constant logins, may violate privacy, and often could be inaccurate or easily circumvented. They now plan to use existing software that predicts ages based on user habits. With this method, only those with incorrect blockage notifications will be directed to specific age verification applications.

However, there is a possibility of initial errors in the system. Daswin De Silva, an artificial intelligence professor from La Trobe University, pointed to the difficulty in distinguishing between ages 15, 16, and 17 for age verification. It is noted that many of the age verification technologies may fail within this narrow age range, and some individuals over 16 might be mistakenly banned due to their content being deemed suitable for the under-16 audience.

This method is expected to cause service disruptions and failures for a few days or weeks until the platforms resolve this situation. Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, and Google have declined to comment on the matter. It is emphasized that the law requires such platforms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent underage individuals.

If the implementation proceeds smoothly, it could create a model for protecting children worldwide from bullying or screen-related problems. The United Kingdom and France have added age restrictions for pornography this year, while Denmark announced in November that it would ban social media use for those under 15.