Australian Gov’t Trials Age Verification Tech to Enforce Social Media Limits

The Australian internal government has initiated a law that imposes a minimum age for social media usage. This law aims to defend kids from dangerous online experiences and has a plan to ban kids that are 16 from using social forums like Facebook, and Instagram. Moreover, this law will be introduced by the end of 2024. Interestingly, the right age will not be disclosed until the government completes the continuous age verification process by using this technology. This initiative has also accompanied South Australia’s proposal to restrict kids under 13 or 16 from social media platforms. 

The Australian government’s proposed age restrictions will face penalties if the social media platforms do not abide by them. Both major political parties now back legislation to restrict children’s access to social media; Prime Minister Anthony Albanese floated lifting the minimum age to 16. The prime minister has had deep concerns about the impact of social media on minors: “Children are losing out on real-life experiences and activities.” He added that parents were increasingly worried about their kids’ safety and mental health due to the digital world. Furthermore, Albanese emphasized the need for the implementation of such rules at the national level to ensure uniformity across the states and territories.

Exploring Age Verification Methods to Protect Children on Social Media

Numbers of age verification systems have been tested to protect minor kids from accessing social media as part of government law’s part. For the time being, Many social media platforms are using the traditional age confirmation methods that are easy to fool. However, the new technique has a core purpose of more extreme security, possibly integrating with biometric systems or any official identification analysis. This is one of the most important steps to defend kids to maintain their privacy. It also has some rule-breaking risks while accumulating important sensitive data. 

As per the expert’s claim, social media companies can misuse kid’s information or they can find the best ways to exploit them. The government is also talking to tech companies to create such systems to verify both kid’s safety and user privacy. The public can expect the possibly best outcomes of this law as it will shape the age verification system’s future to secure younger users.