Ask a Tech
Australian government’s social media age ban | Can platforms rise to the challenge?
Recently, there’s been a lot of news about proposed social media bans for children under 16, and I believe it’s a positive step towards protecting kids online. If this bill passes, social media platforms in Australia will be responsible for enforcing the rule, ensuring that underage users cannot access their accounts.
So, what’s driving the push for a ban? Although social media is great for communication, sharing information and staying connected with friends and family, it has a darker side. Issues such as widespread bullying, unrealistic body standards and other toxic influences are increasingly concerning. If you look at young people today, many are glued to their devices, deeply focused on curating their online image. Some children become particularly self-conscious, posting photos for immediate validation, yet equally vulnerable to negative feedback. From personal experience with my own children, I’ve seen them receive a flood of positive comments, yet one critical remark can be all they dwell on. Sadly, for some, the negative impact of social media has been severe, even leading to tragic losses of young lives.
These stories aren’t hard to find — just weeks ago, a 12-year-old girl took her life after relentless bullying that followed her even after she switched schools. This is exactly why there’s a need to protect children and why the government is pushing for this ban to become law. In a recent interview, Anthony Albanese explained that this legislation would empower parents to tell young children, “Sorry mate, it’s against the law.”
The proposed ban would be broad, disallowing children under 16 from joining social media platforms without exceptions for parental consent. There would be no penalties for users or parents if minors bypass the sign-up restrictions, but enforcement remains a key challenge. One concern with age verification is that the most effective methods often require sharing sensitive information, such as a driver’s licence or passport, which could mean that all users — not just those under 16 — might need to provide similar proof. Other countries have explored alternative methods, such as requiring a photo to estimate age, but such measures can be easily fooled with filters or apps that alter appearances.
While verifying age could make it more challenging to create fake accounts or impersonate others, the ban would only apply to users in Australia. Connecting to a VPN could potentially allow someone to appear to be in another country, making it easier to circumvent the restriction.
Social media companies have argued that enforcing an age ban would be challenging, yet they’ve demonstrated in the past that when motivated, they can implement broad restrictions. In 2021, for example, Facebook blocked all Australian news content in response to proposed legislation requiring them to pay for local news. This move was highly effective, taking all Australian media, including the entire McPherson Media Group, offline on the platform.
Currently, there’s little clarity on how these companies would enforce an age restriction or verify users’ ages. While they would be required to take “reasonable actions”, what qualifies as reasonable remains undefined. I’ll be following this closely and will share updates as more information becomes available.
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