Social media age limits: Qld students part of world-first trial

Students in one Queensland region have been among the first 500 schoolchildren to trial identity verification technology that will enforce looming social media age restrictions. Here’s what happens next.

First Nations students in Far North Queensland have been among the first 500 schoolchildren to trial identity verification technology that will enforce looming social media age restrictions.

The world-first Age Assurance Technology Trial is about halfway completed as it begins testing on adults, who will also be required to prove they are not a child to continue using social media.

The tech platforms that remain in the trial – of the more than 50 who nominated to be tested, including social media giants Meta and Snapchat – are showing strong accuracy among children despite initial concerns Australia’s diverse ethnicity could create bias.

Trial spokesman Iain Corby said an interim report on the early findings has been handed to the federal government, which will decide which platforms are suitable for particular use cases.

“Most of the age estimation technology was not trained on Australian data, so there was always a risk it wouldn’t work as effectively with certain ethnicities,” Mr Corby said.

“At the moment, the testing is demonstrating that the claims made by the suppliers are broadly valid. Now whether the government and regulators will believe that is, there­fore, sufficient for their pur­poses, is a matter for them.”

The technology being trialled includes age verification, estimation and inference applications from checking birth dates against official identity  documents, to biometric screening and using email and phone history.

KJR Cultural Advisor John Fejo with a student at the Radiant Life College in Innisfail as part of the Age Assurance Technology Trial.

Forty students and some staff at Radiant Life College in Innisfail were among the first to test age estimation platforms, on iPads in workshops with trial partner KJR.

College principal Nathanael Edwards said the school used the trial as a cyber safety educational opportunity for students and parents.

“We see a lot of online bullying targeting our younger children,” he said.

“It allowed us to reflect on those horrendous stories and … also encompass that awareness and responsibility when we engage online.”

Mr Edwards said the workshops also gave parents an opportunity to discuss with their children boundaries around having an account and excessive screentime.

“Sometimes we need these initiatives to have these open, honest, frank discussions with our students,” he said.

The trial, sparked amid News Corp Australia’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, will continue with more students in schools in Perth and Canberra with the aim of testing the tech on 1000 nationwide.

Testing on 1000 adults has also begun, with a new focus on “older generations”.

“We’re going to users of all ages in their own homes, and that will potentially test some of the other methods which were less easy to test in a school … where people are using documentary evidence,” Mr Corby said.

A final report on the trial is due by the end of June.

Social media platforms operating in Australia are expected to begin enforcing age restrictions by the end of 2025.

Originally published as Social media age limits: Qld students part of world-first trial