Squiz Shortcuts - The social media ban for U16yos

Your Shortcut to… The social media ban for U16yos

In less than 6 months, the Albanese Government’s ban on social media for children under 16yo will come into effect. It’s the first law of its kind to be passed in the world, but there are still a lot of questions over how exactly it’ll work. So in this Squiz Shortcut, we’ll cover:

• what’s in the legislation

• how it’s meant to work

• and where the tech is up to…

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Squiz the Shortcut

It’s been a minute, remind me about the social media age ban…
Last November, the federal government passed a law that will ban children under the age of 16yo from having accounts on social media platforms - ones like TikTok, Instagram, X, Snapchat and Facebook, plus a few others.

Why is there a need for this?
The main stated reason for introducing the new law is to protect children’s mental health and wellbeing because of the potentially harmful content they’re exposed to online. 

Got it… How will it work?
Top line: you’ll have to be 16 or older to use the apps we mentioned. It’ll come into effect on 10 December, and it will be up to the companies running the platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent kids from having an account. 

So, to be clear - tech companies will bear the legal responsibility?
Yep, and that’s an important point to note - the onus will be on the companies that run the apps to block children. So parents and kids won’t be fined for breaching the rules if they find ways to get around the law (and, let’s face it, there aren’t too many kids who won’t try)... And the fines are pretty hefty. 

How much are we talking about?
They’re designed to make the tech giants take the law seriously, so companies could be fined up to $49.5 million for breaches if they don’t demonstrate that they’ve taken ‘reasonable steps’ to put in place systems to identify and block underage users. 

What are defined as ‘reasonable steps’?
It’s a bit of a grey area - that’s why there’s going to be a 12-month grace period before penalties for non-compliance come in. 

Righto… How will the companies identify underage users?
Well, there’s going to have to be a way for the age of users to be verified by the tech platforms. The government’s on a bit of a steep learning curve with this one - they’ve commissioned an independent software consultancy firm to carry out an Age Assurance Trial, and part of its remit is to test various types of age detection tech and work out how best to identify the age of users without impinging on their privacy. And it’s proving to be tricky…

Why is that?
In practice, it requires anyone who uses social media to prove that they’re older than 16yo to log in. A preliminary report from the trial released last week said that age detection tech does work and that it can be integrated into existing platforms and can also “support the safety and rights of children online”. But the report didn’t include details of what tests were undertaken or any specific results.

When will the full report be available?
It’s due to be handed to Communications Minister Anika Wells at the end of next month… In the meantime, there are some other tests of similar tech going on, which have found that face-scanning technology, which is one method being tested, varies in its accuracy. 

What were the results?
A recent ABC report about the tech said children aged 15 were misidentified as being in their 20s and 30s, and that it could only guess the age of school students within an 18-month range in 85% of cases…

Yikes…
That’s led to some experts raising concerns about whether the tech is up to the job. One of those is Lisa Given, a Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT, who told the ABC she doesn’t think the social media ban is viable. She says that 85% accuracy is “quite low” and that “an 18-month range is significant when you're trying to identify a very particular age grouping”. 

So the ban could affect all people, not just young people?
Yep, under the new law, the apps will likely also require adults to demonstrate their ages before they log in, which opens up a whole lot of questions and concerns over privacy. 

Like what?
Concerns have been raised about how much personal information the tech platforms will collect, what’s done with it, and how often people would be required to verify their ID... There are also questions around what happens if people’s ages are mistaken and children are allowed to access social media, or conversely, if people older than 16yo are blocked. 

Has this law come out of the blue?
It might seem that way to teenagers, but as a society, we’ve been building up to it for years. And to understand the huge push behind it, reports say you need only speak to parents…

Why parents?
According to research, many parents say they’ve been caught in a bind of not wanting their kids to be socially excluded, but also worried about what they might be exposed to online through social media. Our eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, says the darker aspects of the online world are coming at our kids whether they’re prepared for them or not. And she says taking the decision out of the hands of parents and making it law is a huge weight off their shoulders.

What sort of content is she talking about?
Inman Grant says there’s currently next to no protections in place for kids accessing social media, and that 7 in 10 children have encountered content associated with harm, including online bullying, mis and disinformation, misogynistic content, hate speech, pornography and grooming behaviour from adults. And while the technologies to implement the ban may be having some teething problems, Inman Grant says the law is vital to shield kids from that content - and she’s also called for YouTube to be included.

Isn’t YouTube for videos?
That’s what it says. YouTube says 84% of Aussie teachers use it on a monthly basis in class, and that including it in the ban would disadvantage students across the country. But the commissioner has pushed back on that - she says the ban wouldn’t get in the way of teaching. And she named YouTube as the most popular and prevalent platform used by children, and “correspondingly, it's where they achieve the most amount of harm”. 

What about the social aspect of social media for kids?
One thing the government is keen for people to understand is that they ‘get’ that social media is, by its nature, social for kids and it’s a big part of how they’ve grown up and where they connect with friends. In announcing the law last year, former Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the government is trying to balance protecting kids while letting them enjoy the social side of being online, like gaming, messaging and building relationships. They’ve carved gaming and messaging apps out of the ban, so they’ll still be accessible, but the social void the ban stands to create is a big concern raised by many youth advocates.

What are they saying?
Groups like the Australian Youth Affairs Coalition argue that many young people find representation and community online that they aren’t seeing in their local areas or in mainstream media, and just blanket-banning them from accessing it isn’t the right way to go.

So, how will a balance be achieved?
Good question… How they’ll address the social gap, and how they’ll clear the tech hurdles they’re facing before the law comes in, remains to be seen. One thing is for sure, though - a lot of eyes will be on us.

Why is that?
As we mentioned earlier, the legislation is a world-first, and a number of countries, including New Zealand, the UK, and Norway, are keen to follow suit - so they’re watching to see how it goes…

No pressure…
We’ll see if we get any likes.

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Onto our Recommendations

Reading: This article recently published in The Conversation covers some of the results of tech being tested in the Age Assurance Trial.

Watching: And on a bit of a different note, if you want to revisit the beginnings of social media, the movie The Social Network tells the story of how Facebook began. You can watch it for free on 7+

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