Global tech leaders Meta, TikTok, and Snapchat declared they will adhere to Australia's social media prohibition for those under 16, effective from 10 December.

The law passed by Australia's Parliament mandates that social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok eliminate users under the age of 16. Technology firms might incur penalties as high as $32.5 million for failing to comply.

Even though the platforms consented to follow the law, they cautioned that the significant legislation might be hard to impose and expressed worries about enforcing such a law.

Snapchat, TikTok from ByteDance, and Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) acknowledged that enforcing the ban would be challenging, but they affirmed they would adhere to the rules.

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Mia Garlick, Meta's policy director, mentioned that the company continues to address “numerous challenges,” such as finding and removing hundreds of thousands of users younger than 16 before the 10 December deadline. Nonetheless, she mentioned that the procedure is challenging and presents “considerable new engineering and age verification difficulties.”

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Ella Woods-Joyce, TikTok's policy lead for Australia, attended the Senate hearing on Tuesday. She stated, “TikTok will adhere to the law and fulfill our legislative responsibilities.” Nonetheless, the short video platform warned that the “blunt” age restriction might lead to unforeseen outcomes.

The Senior Vice President of global policy and platform operations at Snap, the owner of Snapchat, expressed through a video link the views similar to those of other social media platforms. She stated, “We may not agree, but we accept and will follow the law.”

 

Experts worry that restricting younger users from social media will merely lead them to "more sinister areas of the Internet where safeguards are lacking," stated Woods-Joyce.

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Although social media platforms are not obligated to confirm the ages of every user, they are required to take "reasonable measures" to identify and disable accounts belonging to minors. Firms identified as violating the law will incur significant penalties of up to A$49.5 million ($32.5 million).