Google Says Australia’s Under-16 Law Hard to Enforce
Google has raised serious doubts about Australia’s new law that will ban people under 16 years from using social media. The company said the rule will be “extremely difficult” to enforce and questioned whether it will actually make children safer online.
Key Provisions and Objections
Australia’s Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 is set to begin in December 2025. The law requires platforms to deactivate accounts of underage users, but does not mandate direct age verification. Instead, companies will have to use artificial intelligence and behavioral data to estimate user ages.
Google and YouTube officials argued before an Australian parliamentary hearing that adding YouTube under the law is problematic, since YouTube is a video-sharing platform, not typically classified as social media. They warned of unintended consequences and said better safety tools and parental controls may be more effective.
Broader Concerns
This law makes Australia the first country to prohibit social media use for under-16s. Critics argue that relying on AI inference could lead to errors and privacy issues. Google said it would be “almost impossible” to guarantee no wrongful deactivations. Platforms failing to comply may face large fines.
