Australia's social media ban under-16s hard to enforce, Google says

"Under the new Australian law, which goes into effect December 10, children under 16 will be unable to create or keep accounts on platforms such as Facebook, X, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, which is owned by Google. If these platforms are found to be in violation of the law, they could face stiff penalties of 50 million Australian dollars (€28 million). Experts had previously said that the rules will be some of the strictest limits on children's access to social media in the world."

"Rachel Lord, Google and YouTube's senior manager of public policy in Australia, told an Australian senate committeethat the new legislation might be "well-intentioned" to protect children online, but in practice it will have "unintended consequences". "The legislation will not only be extremely difficult to enforce, it also does not fulfill its promise of making kids safer online," Lord told the committee. "The solution to keeping kids safer online is not stopping them from being online"."

"The risks of children accessing YouTube without being able to log in to their own accounts means that safety controls and filters put in place for younger users will no longer be usable, Lord said. She cited restrictions in YouTube's recommendations section as one such guardrail meant to protect children from inappropriate or harmful content, for example body comparison videos or content that idealises "different weights or fitness levels"."

New Australian law effective December 10 prohibits children under 16 from creating or keeping accounts on major social platforms such as Facebook, X, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, with penalties up to 50 million Australian dollars for violations. The rules aim to protect young people from pressures and risks encountered while logged into social media accounts. The legislation may be well-intentioned but could produce unintended consequences, be extremely difficult to enforce, and fail to make children safer online. Removing account access would disable account-based safety controls, filters, recommendation restrictions, autoplay safeguards, and personalised advertising features that help protect younger users.

Read at euronews