Australia says Meta, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube fall short on enforcing child account ban
(Photo by Samuel Boivin/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
MELBOURNE, Australia - Australia’s online safety watchdog said Tuesday it is considering legal action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube, alleging the platforms are failing to adequately prevent children under 16 from accessing their services.
What they're saying:
Experts say the Australian courts could decide what steps the platforms can reasonably be expected to take under the laws that took effect on Dec. 10 banning young children from holding accounts.
Julie Inman Grant, who is Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, on Tuesday released her first compliance report since those laws took effect demanding 10 platforms remove all Australian account-holders younger than 16.
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Inman Grant said in a statement her office had "significant concerns about the compliance" of half of those 10 platforms. Her office was gathering evidence against the five that they had not taken "reasonable steps" to prevent young children holding accounts.
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Communications Minister Anika Wells said the five criticized platforms were deliberately not complying with Australian law.
"Social media platforms are choosing to do the absolute bare minimum because they want these laws to fail," Wells told reporters.
"This is the world-leading law. We’re the first in the world to do it. Of course they don’t want these laws to work because they want that to be a chilling effect on the dozen countries that have come out since Dec. 10 to follow Australia’s step," she added.
Dig deeper:
While 5 million Australian accounts had been deactivated, a substantial number of Australian children continued to retain accounts, create new accounts and pass platforms’ age assurance systems, the report said.
Courts could order fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to comply. eSafety would decide on whether to initiate court action against any platform by midyear.
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Age-restricted platforms that aren’t under investigation are Reddit, X, Kick, Threads and Twitch.
eSafety had identified "poor practices" such as platforms allowing unlimited attempts for a user to pass their age assurance methods and prompting the user to try to pass the age assurance method even after they declared themselves underage.
The other side:
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told The Associated Press it was committed to complying with Australia’s social media ban. "We’ve also been clear that accurately determining age online is a challenge for the whole industry," the statement said.
Snap Inc., the parent company of Snapchat, said it has locked 450,000 accounts in compliance with the law and continued to lock more every day.
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"Snapchat remains fully committed to implementing reasonable steps under the legislation and supporting its underlying goal of improving online safety for young Australians," a Snap statement said.
TikTok declined to comment on Tuesday and Alphabet Inc., which owns YouTube and Google, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What's next:
Reddit has filed one of two constitutional challenges to the social media ban in the Australian High Court. The other was filed by Digital Freedom Project, a Sydney-based rights group that did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday..
Both suits claim the law is unconstitutional because it infringes on Australia’s implied freedom of political communication.
A preliminary hearing is set for May 21 when the court will set a date for oral arguments, Reddit said Tuesday.
The Source: The Associated Press contributed to this report. The information in this story comes primarily from Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, whose office released a compliance report and public statements outlining concerns about how major social media platforms are enforcing the under-16 ban. This story was reported from Los Angeles.