Analysis: After Australia legislated a social media ban for teenagers, it has to figure out how to enforce it By Reuters

By Byron Kaye and Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Software (ETR:) The evaluators hired by the Australian government to determine how to enforce the world's first national social media ban for teenagers have worked on defense and electoral contracts, but they will use another experience to guide their study: arguing with their own children online.

“We are all parents of children of different ages and we are definitely aware of all the little tricks that children do,” said Andrew Hammond, managing director of technology contractor KJR, which will carry out the trial with about 1,200 Australians chosen at random from January to March.

“Kids are pretty resourceful, so we'll definitely keep our eyes and ears open,” added Hammond, whose previous company projects included testing deployment software for Australian troops in Afghanistan.

The study, one of the largest trials ever conducted on age-monitoring technology, will likely set the course for lawmakers and tech platforms around the world as they navigate a push to restrict age on social media at a time of growing concern about mental health and the mental health of young people. data collection.

From late 2025, platforms such as Meta's instagram (NASDAQ , Elon Musk's .5 million Australian dollars ($32 million). Google's (NASDAQ:) YouTube, a staple in classrooms, is exempt.

But the legislation does not specify what those reasonable measures should be. This is due to the test, supervised by Age Check Certification Scheme, a British consultancy, which expects around 12 technology companies to participate and should give recommendations by mid-2025.

Options include age estimation in which a user's selfie video is biometrically analyzed and then deleted; age verification where a user uploads identification documents to a third-party provider who sends an anonymous confirmation “token” to the platform; and age inference where a user's email address is compared to other accounts.

“The approach the Australian government takes could influence how other countries approach online age checks for social media content,” said Julie Dawson, director of policy and regulation at age verification company Yoti, which conducts age checks for Meta's new more privacy settings system. for teenage instagram users.

Some European countries and US states have legislated minimum ages for social media use, but none have implemented an enforcement regime due to legal challenges based on preserving privacy and freedom of expression.

Even Australia's conservative opposition lawmakers, whose support was needed for the center-left government to pass the ban through parliament, warned that the ban could justify the collection of personal information, echoing a November post by the owner of x, Elon Musk, in which he said that “it looks like a back door.” control internet access for all Australians.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowlands told parliament the ban was “not about the government mandating any kind of technology or requiring personal information to be handed over to social media companies.”

A last-minute change in the law stipulates that platforms requesting identification documents must offer an alternative age barrier.

YOUNG USERS, YOUNGER technology

Pressure to block minors from some parts of the Internet has existed since pornography and gambling websites invaded the World Wide Web. It has taken on new urgency since a Meta whistleblower leaked internal emails in 2021 that allegedly showed knowledge that its products were harmful to young users. Meta has said the documents were misinterpreted.

Growing demand has spurred technological development, but no product is still foolproof when it comes to combining accuracy, privacy, security and ease of use, said Tony Allen, chief executive of the Age Check Certification Programme, which will test products for Australia in those criteria.

Adding to the challenge, many people in the target age range of the bans do not have common identification documents, such as a driver's license or credit card.

This helps make the case for age-monitoring technology that involves analyzing a person's features, such as facial or hand wrinkles.

Yoti, Meta's age verification partner, says its accuracy has improved to the point that it can select more than 99% of people ages 13 to 17 as under 25. It says its standard deviation of error in guessing the age of a person of 18 years -The age is just over a year.

This may not yet be accurate enough for an age restriction in a country of 27 million people, said Konstantin Poptodorov, head of fraud and identity at digital ID company LexisNexis Risk Solutions, while highlighting rapid improvements. and the adoption of technologies such as facial recognition in the last decade.

Meta's policy director for Australia and New Zealand, Mia Garlick, said Yoti benefited from instagram's teen privacy policy, but when it came to appearance “some people grow up very quickly and some people don't.”

Meta didn't know whether extending its Yoti deal would satisfy the Australian ban because “we don't know if what we're currently doing will be considered 'reasonable measures,'” he added.

Providers who rely on uploaded identification documents can participate in the test, but “almost the whole ethos behind the way age screening works is 'we don't want to collect any data,'” said Allen, the system's executive director. age certification.

Software testers would ask some test participants to try to trick the technology with appearance-adjusting filters, but would eliminate only products that failed to stop workarounds deemed cheap and scalable.

Allen didn't have a favorite for which product he would recommend, but he did predict a recommendation.

“There should be options for consumers,” he said.

“They should all be equally effective and meet a certain level of safety, but if you're looking for a silver bullet, you won't find it.”

($1 = 1.5411 Australian dollars)