Age verification trial greenlights Labor’s social media ban
Technology to determine social media users’ ages has been deemed reliable, paving the way for the federal government to press ahead with its social media ban for children under 16.
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.
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 $49.5m 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.
The trial evaluated three different types of technologies, many of which are already being used by online services, before reaching its conclusion.
The first approach involved traditional age verification tools, which rely on official documents such as passports to confirm a user’s date of birth.
The second approach, age estimation, uses biometric techniques – such as facial analysis – to predict a person’s likely age.
Finally, the trial examined age inference technologies, which do not directly verify a user’s date of birth but instead estimate a user’s age by analysing patterns in their online activity and behaviour.
The conclusion that age assurance technologies were effective comes despite a handful of defections and media leaks from the trial’s advisory board, with some members casting doubt on its preliminary findings.
Anthony Albanese will promote Australia’s world-first social media ban for children during a visit to the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September, where he will urge other countries to pursue similar measures to limit teenagers’ exposure to harmful online content.
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