MELBOURNE, Australia/CMEDIA: Potential fines reportedly for those who fail to prevent Australian children from holding accounts for social media platforms, including Facebook and Instagram are being doubled as critics argue the world-first ban on under-16s was failing.
The platforms’ resistance to the age restrictions for the need to toughen the laws that came into force on Dec. 10 was blamed today by Communications Minister Anika Wells
“We can all agree we would like the scheme to work better than it is currently, but that is on Big Tech taking the Mickey,” Wells told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., using an Australian slang term for deceiving, teasing or mocking.
The introduction of draft legislation into Parliament this week was announced Sunday by the government to double the maximum fine to 99 million Australian dollars (C$96 million) for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent Australian children from holding accounts.
While increasing the powers of eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, the amendments would also increase Australia’s online safety watchdog, to demand information and documents to ensure platforms were complying with Australian law, a government statement said.
Included in the new powers would also be information from third parties, such as age assurance technology providers, to test claims made by the platforms about how those under 16 continued to circumvent the ban, the statement said.
Senior opposition lawmaker Jane Hume said that because of deficient laws the “social media ban wasn’t working,” her party would consider voting for the reforms.
“The legislation was clearly undercooked in the first place. The eSafety Commissioner wasn’t given the powers to be able to pursue these Big Tech companies,” Hume said.
The initial legislation was passed by the Parliament in 2024 with overwhelming support giving the targeted platforms more than 12 months to plan to implement the ban.
Many countries who have implemented or are planning similar restrictions have been closely watching progress of Australia’s ban.
The government initially reported more than 5 million children had accounts removed, deactivated or restricted after the ban became law.
But eSafety reported in March that seven in 10 children who held accounts on restricted platforms on Dec. 10 remained on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
Wells said she had received monthly updates from eSafety since March and said no improvements were seen.
“These (draft) changes ensure that the eSafety Commissioner has the tools and powers she needs to hold platforms to account and we’re making sure that she can do just that,” Wells said.
