By Simon Atkinson/ BBC Australia.
The world’s biggest social media companies are not doing enough to keep children in Australia off their platforms, the country’s internet regulator says, despite a law that came into effect late last year.
The legislation banned users under 16 from 10 platforms, but eSafety says it has “significant concerns” about the compliance of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
Australia’s ban – which is being closely watched by countries like the UK – was justified by campaigners and the government as necessary to protect children from harmful content and addictive algorithms.
Firms like Meta and Snap believe the approach is flawed, but say they’re doing the best they can to comply.
In its first report since the ban was instigated in December, the regulator said it had identified “a number of poor practices” from the five platforms.
These include:
- Giving children who had declared they were aged under 16 before the ban the chance to show that they were, in fact, over 16
- Enabling under-16s to repeatedly “attempt the same age assurance method”
- Insufficient measures to prevent new under-16s creating accounts
- Not providing effective ways for parents and others to report under-16s who still had access to social media
Limited data has been released since the ban came into force. In January, the regulator said 4.7 million accounts had been restricted or removed in the first month since the law took effect on December 10.
“While social media platforms have taken some initial action, I am concerned through our compliance monitoring that some may not be doing enough to comply with Australian law,” Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.
The regulator – which had until now been monitoring the situation – says it will begin enforcing the restrictions and gathering evidence.
“The evidence must establish the platform has not taken reasonable steps to prevent children aged under 16 from having an account,” Inman Grant said.
“That means more than simply demonstrating some children do still have accounts. Rather, the evidence must show the platform has not implemented appropriate systems and processes.”
The BBC has contacted all of the social media companies for comment.
A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads, said that the company is “committed to complying with Australia’s social media ban”. It also noted that accurate age determination is a “challenge for the whole industry” and argue that “robust age verification and parental approval” at the app store level is the most effective approach to protect young people.
Snap, which developed Snapchat, said it had locked 450,000 accounts and “continue to lock more every day”.
