Australia to implement age-verification system to ban social media use for under-16s

SYDNEY – Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday social media firms would be required to destroy personal data used to verify ages of users, as part of what the government says is a world-leading ban on under-16s using the services.

Australia plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off.

“There will be very strong and strict privacy requirements to protect people’s personal information, including an obligation to destroy information provided once age has been verified,” Albanese told parliament on Monday.

The laws would impact Meta Platforms’ META.O Instagram and Facebook, Bytedance’s TikTok, and Elon Musk’s X and Snapchat SNAP.N.

These proposals are the highest age limit set by any country, and would have no exemption for parental consent and no exemption for pre-existing accounts. Platforms face fines of up to $32 million for failing to comply with the legislation.

The government has said it aims to pass the bill into law by the end of the parliamentary year on Thursday, fast-tracking it through the upper and lower houses of parliament.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said she looked forward to reading the Senate committee’s assessment of the proposed law, which “supports parents to say ‘no’” to children wanting to use social media.

“Social media in its current form is not a safe product for them,” Rowland told Parliament.

“Access to social media does not have to be the defining feature of growing up. There is more to life than constant notifications, endless scrolling, and pressure to conform to the false and unrealistic perfectionism that can be served up by influencers,” she added.