The Australian government said on Saturday that it would take steps to strengthen its law banning anyone under 16 from major social media platforms, in an acknowledgment of the limited efficacy of the world’s first attempt to prohibit children’s use of the services.
The law, which sets a minimum age for users to have an account on popular services like Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube, took effect in December. Since then, there has been a wave of similar efforts in other countries, including Britain, Canada, Indonesia and Brazil.
But so far, the law seems to have fallen well short of bringing about a sea change in teenagers’ social media usage. Even though millions of accounts were deactivated, about seven in 10 parents whose children had already been on the platforms said they still had accounts, according to a government report. Researchers have also found that most young Australian teens are still using the services.
Saying it was “doubling down” on its efforts, the government said on Saturday that it would toughen penalties for tech companies found to be violating the law, doubling the maximum fine to about $70 million. The government also said it would increase the online safety regulator’s legal authority to compel companies to provide information about what they were doing to keep children under 16 off their platforms.
“It’s clear big tech are not doing enough to comply with the law — there are still too many children on social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement. “These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply with our world-leading law.”
Anika Wells, the communications minister, said in a statement that companies were “adopting tricks straight out of the big tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by.”
The tech companies have criticized the law as a blunt instrument that does not take into account safety measures they have incorporated into their platforms. One of the restricted services, Reddit, has sued the Australian government, arguing that the law infringes on children’s right to political communication.
Under Australia’s law, the responsibility for keeping children off the 10 age-restricted platforms lies with the tech companies, not the parents or the children themselves. Regulators have not specified what would be considered a breach of the law, which says only that companies must show they have taken “reasonable steps” to ensure that no one under 16 can create or hold an account.
The eSafety Commissioner, the regulator tasked with enforcing the law, has opened investigations into five platforms — Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube — for noncompliance. No enforcement actions have been announced so far.
In a compliance report in March, the regulator described “gaps” in the systems meant to keep children off the platforms, like young teenagers repeatedly using facial scans until they are falsely determined to be over 16.
The commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, told The Sydney Morning Herald in an interview published this month that the legislation was developed very quickly, and that she lacked the tools and powers to make enough of a difference.
“What you’re effectively asking us to do with this is fence the ocean,” she said in the interview.
