Tech giants Meta and TikTok said Tuesday they will obey Australia\u2019s under-16 social media ban but warned the landmark laws could prove difficult to enforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia will from December 10 force social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to remove users under the age of 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is keen interest in whether Australia\u2019s sweeping restrictions can work, as regulators around the globe wrestle with the dangers of social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both TikTok and Meta \u2014 the parent company of Facebook and Instagram \u2014 said the ban would be hard to police, but agreed they would abide by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPut simply, TikTok will comply with the law and meet our legislative obligations,\u201d the firm\u2019s Australia policy lead Ella Woods-Joyce told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On paper, the ban is one of the strictest in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But with just over a month until it comes into effect, Australia is scrambling to fill in key questions around enforcement and firms\u2019 obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
TikTok warned the \u201cblunt\u201d age ban could have a raft of unintended consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExperts believe a ban will push younger people into darker corners of the Internet where protections don\u2019t exist,\u201d said Woods-Joyce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2013 \u2018Vague\u2019 and \u2018rushed\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meta policy director Mia Garlick said the firm was still solving \u201cnumerous challenges\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It would work to remove hundreds of thousands of users under 16 by the December 10 deadline, she told the hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But identifying and removing those accounts still posed \u201csignificant new engineering and age assurance challenges\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe goal from our perspective, being compliance with the law, would be to remove those under 16.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Officials have previously said social media companies will not be required to verify the ages of all users \u2014 but must take \u201creasonable steps\u201d to detect and deactivate underage ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Companies found to be flouting the laws face fines of up to Aus$49.5 million (US$32 million).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tech companies have been united in their criticisms of Australia\u2019s ban, which has been described as \u201cvague\u201d, \u201cproblematic\u201d, and \u201crushed\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Video streaming site YouTube \u2013 which falls under the ban \u2014 said this month that Australia\u2019s efforts were well intentioned but poorly thought through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe legislation will not only be extremely difficult to enforce, it also does not fulfil its promise of making kids safer online,\u201d local spokeswoman Rachel Lord said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Australia\u2019s online watchdog recently suggested that messaging service WhatsApp, streaming platform Twitch and gaming site Roblox could also be covered by the ban.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tech giants Meta and TikTok said Tuesday they will obey Australia\u2019s under-16 social media ban but warned the landmark laws could prove difficult to enforce. Australia will from December 10 force social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and TikTok to remove users under the age of 16. There is keen interest in whether Australia\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8850,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222],"tags":[2567,193,1676],"class_list":["post-8849","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-meta","tag-news","tag-tiktok"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8849"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8851,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8849\/revisions\/8851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8850"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8849"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8849"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/miaminewsnetwork.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8849"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}