Children In Australia Can Pass The Age Limit Set By Social Media Platforms

JAKARTA -- Children in Australia can easily exceed the minimum age limit imposed by social media platforms, ahead of a ban on access for those under the age of 16 by the government. This was reported by the country's online safety regulator on Wednesday, February 19.

The eSafety report combines the results of a national survey on the use of social media by children aged 8 to 15, along with responses from eight services including Alphabet's YouTube, Amazon's Meta-owned Facebook and Twitch.

In November 2024, Australia approved a ban on social media for children under 16 years of age. The Australian government has set a benchmark for jurisdictions around the world. The ban is scheduled to take effect by the end of 2025.

Social media companies generally don't allow those under the age of 13 to access their platforms.

Laporan dari badan pengawas tersebut menemukan bahwa 80% anak Australia berusia 8 hingga 12 tahun menggunakan media sosial pada tahun 2024, di mana YouTube, TikTok milik ByteDance, Instagram milik Meta, dan Snapchat milik Snap menjadi layanan paling populer.

YouTube is the only service that allows use by children under 13 when connected to family accounts under parental supervision. However, none of the children aged 8 to 12 years have an account to report account closures because they are considered minors.

According to the report, nineteen-five percent of teenagers under 16 use at least one of the eight services surveyed.

The report found that all services except Reddit required a date of birth at the registration stage. However, they all rely solely on independent declarations without other age checking tools.

"There is still significant work to be done by social media platforms that rely on honest declarations to determine age, especially with the enactment of the government's upcoming minimum age limit," said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.

While TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat, and YouTube use tools to proactively detect users under 13 years of age, other services don't do so even if the technology is available.

Most services have conducted research to improve their age checking settings, while some have easy paths for users to report someone under 13, the report added.