Move FM Australian News

MELBOURNE, Australia: Australian regulators have clarified how the country’s upcoming social media age ban will be enforced, stressing that platforms will not be required to verify the ages of every single user.

The guidance comes ahead of the world’s first nationwide ban on children under 16 having social media accounts, which takes effect on December 10.

The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who drafted the new rules, said it would be “unreasonable” to expect platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, and X to reverify the ages of all existing account holders. She noted that most platforms already possess sufficient data to determine whether users are older than 16.

“These companies have targeting technology capable of extraordinary precision when it comes to advertising,” Inman Grant said. “They can and should apply that same accuracy to identifying underage users.”

Under legislation passed last year, platforms have had twelve months to prepare for the ban. Failure to prevent children under 16 from maintaining accounts could result in penalties of up to A$50 million (US$33 million) for systemic non-compliance.

Still, the law has sparked criticism from privacy advocates who argue that attempts to enforce age restrictions risk intruding on the personal data of all users. Inman Grant dismissed such concerns as a “scare tactic,” emphasizing that the government was not mandating universal age checks.

Communications Minister Anika Wells echoed that reassurance, pointing out that social media companies already hold extensive information on their users. “If you’ve been on Facebook since 2009, then they know you’re over 16,” Wells said. “There is no need to verify again.”

Both Wells and Inman Grant will travel to the United States next week to meet with major tech firms and outline expectations for compliance. The eSafety Commissioner said platforms would be required to demonstrate that they are taking “reasonable steps” to exclude children from their services.

“We don’t expect every under-16 account to vanish overnight on December 10,” she explained. “What we will be monitoring are systemic failures — whether companies are applying the technologies, policies, and processes they already have.”

Experts say the approach acknowledges the limitations of current age verification technologies. Lisa Given, an information sciences specialist at Melbourne’s RMIT University, told the ABC that mistakes are inevitable. However, the real test will be how platforms interpret the government’s definition of “reasonable steps.”