Technology designed to check the age of social media users is effective and practical to implement, a government-backed trial has concluded, clearing the way for Labor to press ahead with its planned ban on children accessing such platforms. Source: The Australian.
Under the restrictions slated to take effect on December 10, social media sites including TikTok, Snapchat, X, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube will be required to take “reasonable steps” to prevent children younger than 16 from creating or holding an account.
The legislation is among the most stringent crackdowns on online platforms globally, and will impose steep fines valued at up to $49.5 million against platforms that breach the ban.
Since the policy was unveiled, however, there has been significant scepticism from some experts and social media companies that existing tools will be able to accurately gauge a user’s age without compromising their privacy.
But an independent trial of age assurance technologies, conducted by consultancy firm KJR and commissioned by the federal Government last year, concluded that the task of determining an individual’s age “can be done” and claimed there were no technological barriers to their rollout.
Rather than endorsing any particular method of age assurance, the trial assessed the effectiveness, reliability and privacy impacts of more than 60 technologies that were voluntarily offered by almost 50 providers.
The trial did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all cases, nor did it find solutions that were “guaranteed to be effective” in all deployments, subsequently concluding that different situations will require different approaches.
Its findings will feed into new industry guidance that will set out exactly what social media platforms must do to avoid breaching the ban, while leaving it up to each company to decide which technology it deploys to stop children from accessing their sites.
In a statement released in conjunction with the trial’s findings, Communications Minister Anika Wells said the report gave further evidence that social media platforms had access to technology to “better protect young people” online.
“While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to age assurance, this trial shows there are many effective options and importantly that user privacy can be safeguarded,” she said.
FULL STORY
Age verification trial greenlights Labor’s social media ban (By Jack Quail, The Australian)
