What has been introduced?
In Australia, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 has passed through Parliament, which amends the Australian Online Safety Act 2021 (OSA). The new legislation introduces the term 'age restricted social media platforms' , which includes the likes of Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram and X. They must now take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under the age of 16 from registering and holding accounts on their platforms (even with parental consent).
These social media platforms operating in Australia will have 12 months to roll out appropriate systems to help enforce these age restrictions on their sites. Following this grace period, platforms in breach of the minimum age obligation may face significant civil penalties including fines of nearly up to A$50 million.
What's required?
The new legislation will require platforms to take reasonable steps to remove and deactivate all accounts for Australian children under 16 years, regardless of the date on which the account was established. It also places the obligation on platforms to take the necessary reasonable steps it sees fit but does not dictate how platforms must comply with the minimum age obligations. It's understood that at minimum, platforms will be required to implement forms of age assurance as a means to identifying whether a prospective or existing Australian account holder is under the age of 16.
Alongside age assurance, complying with the minimum age requirement is likely to necessitate platforms to establish systems and procedures to continuously monitor and address age-restricted users who bypass age assurance.
The new rules exclude messaging apps, online gaming platforms, and educational services like Google Classroom.
There has been some initial criticism that the legislation is still 'too blunt an instrument ' to address risks effectively and create a better online space. However, the Australian Government acknowledges that complete prevention of young people from accessing harmful products or content online is unrealistic.
This shouldn't be considered as solely an 'Australian' issue as we know that many of the major and most popular platforms are operating outside of Australia, with some lacking any physical presence in Australia, which could be why the Australian Government has considered it essential to implement significant penalties to create an effective and meaningful deterrence in and out of Australia.
Could we see the same over here?
It'd be fair to say that the Australian Government kick started the recent changes seen globally to online safety regulation, with the introduction of thee Australian OSA in 2021.
In the UK, the Online Safety Act 2023 demands tech firms take increased responsibility for the content on their platforms to protect children from some legal but harmful material. Ofcom has already identified that many platforms are still falling short, and has warned that social media platforms should use stricter age verification techniques, as we covered in a previous article. Ofcom's stance is clear: self-declaration of age is insufficient.
The UK OSA will mandate enhanced age verification from 2025, and the idea of introducing a similar age ban in the UK has been floated by Science, Innovation and Technology Secretary, Peter Kyle. However, it may be that the UK wants to see evidence that tech firms are capable of delivering suitable and effective age verification for users first, before the implementation of a robust age ban is enacted.
With criticisms still arising that social media platforms have not demonstrated a balanced approach to the promotion of the best interests of children who access their services over commercial interests, it may be some time before we see platforms adopting blanket age bans for their services across all countries. And the point is clearly demonstrated by Instagram recently introducing 'teen accounts' for 'under 18' users and Roblox blocking 'under 13' users from the online messaging feature of its game.
