Australia is a world-leading example of protecting children online, says regulator

Australia has tightened rules on the use of social networking sites by children and teenagers. Internet regulator eSafety said it sees the ban on accounts for under-16s as the first step in a broader global effort to curb the influence of big tech firms.

With the law coming into effect on December 10 and fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars for breaches, Meta, TikTok, Alphabet's Snapchat and Alphabet's YouTube have announced they will comply with the rules.

Meta had already begun deactivating hundreds of thousands of underage accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Threads platforms before the law came into effect.

About 96 per cent of Australians under the age of 16 have a social network account, more than one million people out of a total population of 27 million, according to data from the regulator.

The commissioner of Australia's cybersecurity regulator, eSafety, Julie Inman Grant, said she initially had reservations about the "hard" solution of blanket blocking of accounts, but began to support it after incremental regulatory action proved insufficiently effective.

She stressed that social networks rely on the processing of personal data and use design features that even adults struggle with, and that a number of countries are following Australia's approach as an incentive to regulate minors' access to social networks.

(reuters, sie)