Final rules for ban revealed, with no legally enforceable effectiveness standards

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Social media companies will be required to prove they're taking reasonable steps to verify the age of users under the federal government's upcoming social media ban. But won't need to verify the age of every user or meet a minimum standard for how many teenagers they boot off their platforms

Transcript

00:00The practical part is still a bit of a mystery because really what the eSafety Commissioner

00:06has done here in giving out these guidelines is taken what she's calling a principles-based

00:12approach.

00:13So what she's said to the platforms is however you're checking Australians' ages it needs

00:16to be reliable, accurate, robust and effective.

00:20She hasn't given them a list of concrete tools that they have to use or methods they have

00:26to use.

00:27So we'll have to wait and see which methods they do opt for.

00:32As you say, there won't be a legally enforceable minimum standard for accuracy, but eSafety

00:37will be enforcing a standard.

00:41It's been kept loose because the tech's evolving and they don't want to be too prescriptive

00:47because every platform's different basically.

00:49But we know for sure now that self-declaration, the batching of a parent, that kind of thing

00:52will not be good enough on its own, but we're going to have to wait and see what platforms

00:57opt for.

00:58And they're all going to opt for different things.

00:59We might start to hear a little bit more or even see some of the systems come into play

01:04early from social media companies doing different kinds of age checking.

01:08But one really interesting thing that's come out of this process this week is that it's

01:12looking like age inference will play a much bigger role than we initially thought, rather

01:17than what we all initially guessed at, which is handing over your ID or having your face

01:21scanned in the first place.

01:22In fact, it might be more frictionless as a process where companies are using existing

01:29data that they have.

01:30And in many cases, particularly older Australians, Australians who are well clear of that 16 year

01:35cut off, they may not even notice when the ban comes in because a social media company

01:41will have all the information they need to say, yes, we know you're well and truly over

01:4516.

01:46And yeah, that's an interesting part.

01:49It may be less of a bumpy and invasive ride than we've been expecting.

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