Children ‘easily circumvent’ online age restrictions, finds regulator

Social media platforms have their work cut out if they are to comply with Australia’s age restriction laws

Australia’s Online Safety Law, which requires social media platforms to prevent under-16s from creating an account, is set to come into force by December 2025, with enforcement measures introduced soon afterwards.

While they likely still have the best part of a year to comply, a report by the eSafety Commissioner, Australia’s online regulator, suggests they will have their work cut out if they are to avoid fines of up to to AUD$49.5 million (US$32.2 million).

The regulator found that children are currently “easily circumventing inadequate and poorly enforced minimum age rules employed by well-known social media services,” since most simply rely on self-declaration of age when creating an account.

“Few have any real stringent measures in place to determine age accurately at the point of sign-up so there’s nothing stopping a 14-year-old for instance entering a false age or date of birth and setting up an unrestricted adult account that doesn’t carry those extra safety features,” said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.

According to the report, 95% of teenagers under 16 had used one of the eight social media platforms surveyed (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Reddit, Discord and Twitch) last year.

Most of the platforms did not know how many children used their services, and numbers were likely to be severely underestimated given how easy it is for children to create an account by lying about their age.

Some services, including TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat and YouTube, deploy tools to proactively detect users under 13 once they have created an account, but their effectiveness is questionable.

Platforms in scope of the law will be identified by the regulator at a later date. They will likely exclude YouTube which can be used without creating an account, as well as gaming, educational and health services and messaging apps.

Those in scope will need to deploy age verification software, a controversial solution owing to concerns about privacy and secure storage of sensitive data, questions about its effectiveness and a lack of standardisation.

A spokesperson for Meta told Reuters the company supports age-appropriate experiences for children online, but it should be the responsibility of app stores to enforce age restrictions.