Australia Doubles Social Media Fines, Many Children Under 16 Still Escape Ban

Australia will double fines for social media platforms that fail to prevent children under 16 from having accounts. The rules were tightened after many children were still able to access social media.

Kyodo News quoted Sunday, June 28, reported that the Australian government will also give greater investigative powers to the eSafety Commissioner, an online safety regulator that oversees the implementation of the ban.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said technology companies were not serious enough about complying with the rules. He said there were still too many children under 16 on social media platforms.

"This change reflects our seriousness in taking action against any failure of social media companies to comply with laws that are pioneers in this world," Albanese said.

With the new rules, platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat can be fined a maximum of 99 million Australian dollars or around 68 million US dollars. That's up from 49.5 million Australian dollars.

Fines can be imposed if the company is judged to have failed to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 from having an account.

The eSafety Commissioner will also have greater powers to request information and documents from social media companies and third parties, such as age verification service providers and app stores.

Australia began enforcing age-based social media bans on December 10. The goal is to protect children from the risk of social media to mental and physical health.

The government claims that more than 5 million underage accounts have been deleted, disabled, or restricted in the first six months of the implementation of the rules. However, the effectiveness of the policy is still questionable.

A study by the University of Newcastle released on Friday found that more than 85 percent of children under 16 continued to use social media after the ban came into effect. Some maintain old accounts. Others use fake accounts or accounts belonging to friends and family.

So far, the eSafety Commissioner has flagged five companies as potentially non-compliant, namely Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube. The regulator is still gathering evidence before taking enforcement action.

Australia's move is now being watched by many countries. Indonesia is said to have imposed a ban on children under 16 years of age since March, while France is processing rules to ban the use of social media for children under 15 years of age.

Britain, Denmark, and Greece have also announced plans to impose similar age restrictions.