Yope and Lemon8 surge as teen users look for new home

Under-16s hoping to find a new online home once they’re barred from Snapchat and TikTok in a matter of days may find the process tougher than anticipated, as the government clarifies that the so-called social media ban will extend further than the 10 apps it has specifically called out.

Lesser-known social apps including photo-sharing group chat service Yope, and TikTok-linked Instagram-like Lemon8, have surged up the charts of most-downloaded apps in Australia, as underage influencers use their final fortnight on social media to guide their communities to greener pastures.

Yope has been around for a few years, and is a bit like Instagram except with private chatrooms instead of public posts and feeds.

But according to a spokesman for the eSafety commissioner, any app that meets the criteria of the new laws will be expected to block users under 16 come December 10, no matter how esoteric they are.

“eSafety has published its assessments of major online services to provide greater certainty for Australian families and industry. However, with just over a week to go, eSafety is also reminding the broader online industry all services are obliged to comply with the law,” the spokesman said.

“This means services themselves must continually assess whether they meet the definition of an age-restricted social media platform. If they do ... they must take reasonable steps to ensure users under 16 do not hold an account.”

Companies that do not take these steps face penalties of up to $49.5 million.

Many messages and videos shared by young users have been made in good humour, acknowledging the difficulty in starting from the ground up at another service. But the attention was enough to drive Yope to the top of Apple’s charts on Friday, as reported by Crikey.

It’s unclear whether the service would be considered an age-restricted social media platform, which the government essentially defines as any app with a sole or significant purpose of social interaction and user-generated content, which is not a messaging or gaming platform. For example, eSafety has said Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram are restricted, while WhatsApp is not. Yope primarily focuses on group messaging, but it does have features similar to Snapchat, including “streaks” to reward frequent conversation. Using eSafety’s own self-assessment criteria, it would come down to whether Yope can argue it has a primary purpose of enabling communication by messaging, which would make it exempt.

The uncertainty means that teens moving to lesser-known apps may still find themselves blocked come December 10, and that’s not the only danger. The move to find alternative social sharing apps could drive users to platforms with less than ideal privacy and security practices, increasing the risk that they could have personally identifiable information misused. This is a danger even if platforms intend to comply with the regulations.

Dr Hassan Asghar, a cybersecurity lecturer at Macquarie University, said the government had not mandated the use of certain tools or techniques for age verification, leaving the choice up to social media companies. And some methods are more privacy intrusive than others.

“Social media platforms who are newer to the market may not have the resources and expertise to implement age verification with the same level of safety as multinationals,” he said.

“A series of data breaches have shown that data is rarely exposed due to function creep; rather, hackers exploit security loopholes in systems. The wider the spread of our data, the greater the risk of exposure.”

The social media restrictions prohibit platforms from requiring users to upload a government ID to verify their age. They can use it as an option, but must also have a reasonable alternative.

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