Synopsis
Australia's teen social media ban faces enforcement challenges due to platforms' weak application of available age-checking tools, not technological limitations. Regulators are investigating major tech companies for suspected breaches, with significant fines at stake. Industry bodies assert that platforms' inconsistent use of age verification, rather than inadequate technology, allows underage access.Listen to this article in summarized format
The comments come as regulators step up enforcement warnings against some of the world's largest technology companies regarding Australia's social media ban of users younger than 16, since December, the world's first such measure.
"The issue is not capability, it is application," Iain Corby, executive director of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA), in a statement.
Early shortcomings showed a need for stronger expectations and enforcement, rather than that age assurance technology did not work, it added.
Australia's eSafety Commissioner is investigating Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Google's YouTube, TikTok and Snap over suspected breaches of the ban.
Platforms face fines of up to A$49.5 million ($35 million) for every breach, and the government says it is gathering evidence to support support Federal Court action if compliance does not improve.
The initial rollout showed age assurance products can operate accurately at scale, but platforms fail to apply them consistently or at key points, such as account sign-up, the association said in a report.
TikTok and Snap declined to comment, while Meta and Google were not immediately available for comment.
The findings push back against social media companies' assertions of inadequate age-checking, contending that continued under-age access reflects how platforms are using, or not using, the tools available, rather than technical constraints.
Regulatory data shows millions of suspected under-age accounts have been removed since the law came into force.
However, Australian regulator eSafety has also flagged persistent gaps, such as failures to verify age at account set-up, repeated attempts at age checks until users pass and continued reliance on self-declared ages.
In its report the AVPA said independent testing and early live deployment suggested those weaknesses were driven mostly by platform behaviour, not technlogy shortcomings.
Key risks to effectiveness were over-reliance on internal age-inference models, which guess a person's age on the basis of online activity, and limited re-verification of existing accounts, it added.
Australia assessed members of the AVPA in a sweeping trial before the ban. ($1=A$1.3970)
