Anthony Albanese’s social media ban facing delays, as tech giants push back

Anthony Albanese’s pledge to ban teenagers from social media is being undermined by tech companies’ refusal to enforce adequate verification barriers and delays in government trials.

Meta has warned that Anthony Albanese’s proposed age verification laws would be difficult to implement and that parents aren’t using parental controls already available on Facebook and Instagram. Picture: AFP

Anthony Albanese’s pre-election pledge to ban teenagers from ­social media is being undermined by tech companies refusing to ­enforce adequate verification ­barriers and delays in government trials of existing technologies to shield children from digital harms.

Amid divisions in Labor ranks over the optimal age of children who would be banned from social media, the government is not expected to finalise its decision until late this year at the earliest following technology trials and sign-off from state and territory leaders.

National cabinet leaders have mixed views on what age should be captured under the proposed ban. South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan have announced they will restrict children under the age of 14 from accessing social media, with stricter parental controls enforced for teenagers aged 14 and 15.

The Prime Minister is personally supportive of new laws capturing children under 16, mirroring Peter Dutton’s June announcement that he would impose a social media ban on kids in the first 100 days of a Coalition government.

Without nominating an age, Mr Albanese last week announced Labor would legislate the ban in this term of parliament on the same day the government went out to tender for stage three of its age assurance tech trial.

The Department of Communications on Wednesday will hold an industry briefing with potential contractors to run its age assurance trials, which will inform the government’s preferred age. The cut-off for applicants closes on October 7.

The third phase of age verification trials, which were announced on May 1, will evaluate the effectiveness and readiness for use of available age assurance technologies determining the age of a user in the 13-16 age bracket.

The final phase includes live testing of age verification tech­nologies.

Offshore social media and tech platform operators have to date not applied stringent age verification processes, allowing kids to view pornography and access other extreme content. The recalcitrance from tech giants including Meta, which has raised doubts over the social media ban, comes as children consume or share content on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, gaming sites and encrypted messaging apps.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland told The Australian: “There has been an active public discussion about what should be the appropriate minimum age for access to social media, with approaches typically ranging from 14 to 16 years.

“We will continue to engage with experts, young people and parents through the age assurance trial to inform ourselves, and take a proposal to national cabinet on the appropriate age,” Ms Rowland said.

“We know Australian parents are exhausted with the burden of managing online safety – we’re listening and determined to get this right to provide them with better support.”

Opposition communications spokesman David Coleman, who said the Coalition was firmly committed to its nominated age of 16, said the government’s trials were taking too long.

“They can’t really say anything about it other than they intend to do it by the end of the year. How do they get that done by the end of the year and how do they resolve it when they don’t even know what the age is?

“When they announced the trial, we said, what do the social media companies have to do as part of the trial? And the answer is nothing because the social media companies aren’t actually required to participate in the trial.”

The eSafety Commissioner, which has been developing an age verification roadmap since 2021, has warned digital platforms including porn content providers must do more to improve verification provisions because kids can get around blocks.

Mr Coleman said Meta doesn’t want a legislated regime because it would mean “fewer underage kids” on their platforms … “that means there’s going to be less traffic on the platform and that means there’s going to be less advertising revenue”.

He said 120 mental health experts, psychologists, psychiatrists and academics recently wrote to him in support of banning children under the age of 16.