First social media ban on under-16s begins soon: Instagram is already sending warnings to Australia
The world's first social media ban on children under 16 will come into effect in Australia within a week, while Instagram has started sending notifications to teenagers about the upcoming ban.
From December 10, platforms that the Australian Government has decided to ban must deactivate all accounts of users under the age of 16.
These platforms are: Facebook, Instagram, Tik-Tok, Snapchat, X (Twitter), YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, Kick and Threads. However, the government said that this is a dynamic list of applications whose use is prohibited for children, so other applications may be added to the list in the future.
Some platforms, which are also used by young people, will not be banned and these are Roblox, Pinterest, YouTube Kids, WhatsApp, Discord, Messenger, Google Classroom and similar applications that can be useful for students.
Many are wondering how user age verification will work. However, this is left to each individual platform to decide on the verification method.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has not revealed how it plans to determine which users are under 16, arguing that this would potentially inform teens how to avoid being banned. Snapchat will use account behavior patterns and the date of birth listed on the account to determine who is under 16. TikTok said it will follow a “multi-layered approach to age determination,” relying on “different technologies.”
After the ban goes into effect, teens will be able to download all their Facebook and Instagram photos and messages from their account, as well as suspend it until they turn 16. TikTok said it will allow users to deactivate or delete their accounts, as well as archive content from their accounts. Many other apps will also allow access to content that has been deleted from users' accounts.
The government said people should not expect the ban to be complete and perfect on the first day the decision comes into effect and that it will not immediately penalize platforms if they do not comply with the decision.
