Youthful business owners wrongly suspected of being under 16 will need to verify their age before logging in to Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, as part of Australia’s imminent social media age ban.
Australians under the age of 16 will be banned from creating or holding social media accounts from Wednesday, December 10.
The federal government says its new online safety laws will protect children from mental health risks, cyberbullying, and age-inappropriate content.
Designated social media platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitch, Kick, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, and Reddit (messaging apps like Messenger and WhatsApp are exempt).
Those platforms must take “reasonable steps” to ensure young teens are excluded, and can use existing data and signals to determine if an account falls under the ban.
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Such signals include the age of the account, the kinds of accounts it engages with, and whether a user communicates like a young teen would.
But those platforms acknowledge their internal age-check tools are imperfect, meaning some young teens could slip through the ban.
And the same imperfect age verification systems designed to exclude teens could theoretically prevent some users over the age of 16, including business account users, from logging into social media.
“It’s important to note that accurately determining age online is a challenge for the entire industry,” Meta wrote on its Australian policy blog last month.
“For more than a decade, many organisations and companies have tried to solve the complex challenge of online age assurance,” said TikTok Australia in a Friday blog post.
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“Despite these efforts, and as recognised by eSafety, there is still no single method that can be used to effectively confirm a person’s age in a way that also preserves their privacy.”
Older account holders given a chance to prove their age
The designated social media platforms are preparing for some older users to fall foul of their internal age verification practices.
Meta says older teens and adults mistakenly barred from Facebook or Instagram can verify their age by providing a copy of their government ID or a video selfie through the third-party age check platform Yoti.
TikTok, which uses a combination of technology and human moderators to detect teen accounts, will also permit users to dispute wrongful bans by providing credit card authorisation, government ID, or a Yoti facial age estimation.
British tech firm Yoti claims it is ready for the influx of age checks, saying the launch of similar online safety rules in the UK and France proved its systems are capable of handling dozens of requests per second.
The firm “can say with confidence that the infrastructure is ready, our tech works at scale and there’s no need for panic,” wrote Yoti chief marketing officer Chris Field earlier this month.
“The UK and France saw steady traffic spikes, but our systems scaled without issue, and Australia is benefiting from everything we learned during those launches,” he added.
Despite its vehement opposition to the rules, Reddit plans to comply with the ban and provide users the opportunity to dispute wrongful exclusion.
“If you’re predicted to be under 16, you’ll have an opportunity to appeal and verify your age,” according to a statement Reddit shared to its platform safety messageboard on Tuesday.
Snapchat will allow users aged 16 and over to provide Australian bank account details, or provide a government ID or facial age estimation to the third-party provider k-ID.
