Down under clamps down: Australia shows social media giants the door

MUMBAI: From midnight on Tuesday, Australia became the global guinea pig in a grand experiment: can you actually stop teenagers from doom-scrolling? The answer, as of Wednesday, is legally mandated—even if practically uncertain.

Ten social media behemoths—including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook—now face fines of up to A$49.5m ($33m) if they let under-16s through their digital doors. It’s the world’s strictest age-gating law, and prime minister Anthony Albanese is singing paeans about it.

“This is the day when Australian families are taking back power from these big tech companies,” Albanese told ABC News, sounding rather like a revolutionary storming the Bastille, except the guillotine is regulatory and the aristocrats wear hoodies.

The law has split opinion faster than a viral TikTok. Parents and child advocates are applauding. Tech companies and free speech warriors are fuming. But Down Under isn’t backing down. Some teenagers have taken the government to court on its ban initiative; hearing for which is expected to commence in January sometime. 

The platforms  wielded the ban-hammer with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Meta jumped the gun, booting under-16s from Instagram, Facebook and Threads on 4 December.  Users got a courtesy heads-up to download their content before vanishing into the digital ether—though their data will be preserved like digital amber until they hit the magic age.

Snapchat is taking no prisoners: three-year account suspensions, full stop. TikTok, meanwhile, is deploying its age verification technology like a bouncer at an exclusive club, deactivating accounts regardless of whose email or name is attached. The platform is even encouraging parents to dob in fibbing offspring—a digital grassing hotline, if you will.

YouTube’s approach is gentler: automatic sign-outs on 10 December, with channels going invisible but data safely tucked away for future reactivation. The twist? Kids can still watch without logging in, making it the equivalent of window shopping at a mall you’re banned from entering.

Twitch is dragging its feet. New accounts for under-16s were  blocked but existing accounts get a reprieve until  9 January.  Reddit  suspended underage accounts. 

Not every platform made the naughty list. Discord, Roblox, WhatsApp, Pinterest, and YouTube Kids are among those granted temporary clemency. The Roblox exemption raised eyebrows, given recent reports of predators prowling its digital playgrounds. eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant insists the platform has introduced age-verified chat controls rolling out this month—users can only chat with similar-aged players, turning the metaverse into a digital age-segregated playground.

How are platforms spotting the youngsters? Most are deploying age verification tech that makes passport control look quaint. Live video selfies analyse facial data points to estimate age. Others demand email addresses or official documents. According to Yoti, an age verification firm working with Meta, most users choose the selfie option—presumably because hunting for a birth certificate is too much faff.

Adult users fretting about privacy can blame the Age Assurance Technology Trial conducted earlier this year, which convinced the government that age checks needn’t turn into a surveillance state. Whether that’s reassuring or terrifying depends on your faith in facial recognition algorithms.

In what may be the most optimistic government PSA since “Just Say No,” Albanese will appear in a video message in schools this week urging children to “start a new sport, new instrument, or read that book that has been sitting there for some time on your shelf.” Because nothing says “cool alternative to Instagram” quite like dusting off Treasure Island.

The real question is whether this Australian experiment will go viral itself. Denmark, New Zealand and Malaysia are watching closely, eyeing their own versions of digital prohibition. If it works, Australia becomes the blueprint. If it flops, it’s a cautionary tale with a $33m price tag.

Either way, the world’s teenagers just learned a valuable lesson: when governments decide to parent, they parent hard. And in Australia, bedtime for social media is now legally enforced. The only question left is whether the kids will outsmart the algorithms—or whether the algorithms will finally outsmart the kids.