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Australian authorities on Thursday asked some of the world’s biggest social media platforms to report how many accounts they have disabled since a law banning accounts for children under 16 was enacted.
Facebook, Instagramkick, redditsnapchat, threads, tiktokCommunications Minister Anika Wells said X, YouTube and Twitch all said they would comply with Australia’s world-first law that took effect on Wednesday.
But the reactions of tech companies to eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s first demand for data will likely signal their commitment to ridding their platforms of young children.
“Today the eSafety Commissioner will write to all 10 platforms that are considered age-restricted social media platforms and she will ask them… what was your number of under-16 accounts on December 9; what is your number today on December 11?” Wells said.
The Commissioner will disclose the platforms’ responses within two weeks. The platforms will be required to provide monthly updates for six months.
If companies fail to take appropriate steps to remove the accounts of Australian children under 16, they will face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32.9 million) from Wednesday.
Wells said the European Commission, France, Denmark, Greece, Romania, Indonesia, Malaysia and New Zealand are considering following Australia’s lead in restricting children’s access to social media.
“There has been a huge amount of global interest in this and we welcome that, and we welcome all the allies who are joining Australia in taking action in this area and drawing a line to say enough is enough,” Wells said.
Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project plans to challenge the law on constitutional grounds in the Australian High Court early next year.
Inman Grant said some platforms had consulted lawyers and would be waiting to receive their first so-called mandatory information notice or their first fine for non-compliance on Thursday before launching a legal challenge.
Inman Grant said his staff was prepared for the possibility that platforms would intentionally fail to exclude young children through age verification and age estimation technologies.
“This may be a strategy that they have in and of themselves: We’ll say we’re compliant but then we’ll do a dodgy job using these technologies and we’ll let people go through it and people will claim it’s a failure,” Inman Grant told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Inman Grant said their research showed that 84% of children aged 8–12 in Australia have used a social media account. Of those who accessed social media, 90% did so with the help of parents.
Inman Grant said the main reason parents wanted to help was that “they didn’t want their kids to be left out.”
Inman Grant said, “What this legislation does … is it takes away the fear of exclusion.”
