Australia's online platforms are apparently failing at the very first step in age-checking users on social media platforms. The world-first social media ban for under 16s has been largely deemed ineffective by a new study, looking into the government's implementation of the ban.
Since December of last year, Australia's new laws meant that platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube would not allow users to have accounts if they were under 16 years of age. However, as per Reuters, studies have found that many users under the age of 16 are still able to access the aforementioned platforms. Australia has doubled the fine for tech giants not complying with the new laws, but a team of software testers found that platforms did not ask for age verification on accounts it opened, despite declaring them as age 16.
The flaw is not with the photo verification process, but rather with the initial stage, which guesses users ages based on their general online activity. Even if this identifies a younger user, it doesn't pick them up for further checks. Streaming platform Kick was an outlier in this case, but otherwise it seems that it's business as usual for a lot of other social media platforms, despite the ban.