Australia's teen social media ban faces a new wild card: teenagers
When 13-year-old Jasmine Elkin tried out the age-checking software Australia might use to ban children and teenagers from social media, she was surprised some products could identify a person's age to the month — but she still doubts it will work.
'People are always going to find a way to get past it,' said the Perth schoolgirl who trialled five photo-based age estimation products with about 30 other students in May. 'They can get their brother or sister to take a photo. There's nothing really that you can do about it.'
Elkin's view echoes one of the main concerns of child protection advocates, tech firms and even the trial organisers about the technology Australia hopes will enable the world's first national social media ban for under-16s: the software works, they say, but young people will find a way around it.
From December, social media companies like Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok will face a fine of as much as A$49.5m (R579.5m) if they fail to take what the law calls 'reasonable steps' to block younger users in an effort to protect their mental and physical health.
The platforms say users need to be at least 13 years old to sign up for an account.
How well the ban works could reverberate across some of the world's largest companies and the governments seeking to contain them: already Britain, France and Singapore are making efforts to keep children and teens off social media, while US states including Florida are challenging free speech laws by pushing for a ban.
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