The Australian government announced on Saturday (June 27) that it will double the maximum financial penalties for tech companies failing to enforce the social media ban for kids under 16, following a report which claimed that teenagers are easily bypassing the restrictions. Under the newly proposed changes, the maximum fine for a social media platform’s systemic failure to block children under the age of 16 will jump from A$49.5 million to a staggering A$99 million ($68 million USD), according to a report by news agency Reuters.In addition to the massive fines, the government plans to strengthen the information-gathering powers of its internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner. This will legally force social media giants to turn over explicit internal evidence detailing exactly what steps they are taking to prevent underage users from creating accounts.A spokesperson for the Prime Minister stated that the exact timeline for introducing these stricter amendments to Parliament has not been finalised.
Five major platforms under investigation
The regulatory crackdown comes as the government confirmed that the eSafety Commission is actively investigating five of the world’s largest social media platforms for potential non-compliance:
- Meta’s Instagram and Facebook
- Google’s YouTube
- Snap’s Snapchat
- TikTok
Australia’s six-month-old minimum age law is being closely watched by international governments eager to tackle youth mental and physical health crises. The UK, for instance, recently announced even stricter upcoming restrictions that will expand to target gaming and live-streaming apps.“I’m heartened by the shift in conversation and the global momentum we’ve seen since introducing the social media minimum age, but it’s clear Big Tech are not doing enough to comply with the law — there are still too many children on social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in an official statement.
5 million accounts blocked
The government defended the overall effectiveness of the ban, noting that tech companies have deactivated or restricted more than 5 million underage accounts since the legislation went live. However, a report suggests that teenagers are easily adapting, detailing that 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still actively using social media three months after the ban took effect.Numerous studies highlight that current age-verification tools, like asking a user to upload a selfie, are easy for kids to trick. Even worse, researchers found that in many instances, tech platforms never even prompted the children to verify their age in the first place.
