Social Media Bans for Teens: What Australia’s New Law Means for Kids, Parents, & Tech

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A sweeping ban on social media for kids under 16 is rolling out in Australia, and other countries are watching closely. On This Week in Tech, host Leo Laporte and guests discussed the complex reality behind this headline-grabbing law and whether current tech solutions like video age verification can actually deliver on safety promises.

What Is Australia’s Social Media Ban for Teens?

Australia is among the first countries to enforce a near-total social media restriction for minors under 16, targeting apps like X (Twitter), Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Snapchat, and even platforms like Twitch. As of December 10 (with some regions enforcing earlier), teens must be locked out of these platforms unless platforms can verify their age and compliance.

Several European countries (France, Denmark, Norway, Spain) are considering or implementing similar rules. The motivation: growing concern about how social media may be harming children’s mental health, social lives, and safety.

The Challenge: How Do You Prove a User’s Age Online?

On This Week in Tech, panelists including Molly White and Wesley Faulkner explained the nearly unsolvable problem of online age verification.

Traditional web systems don’t allow for easy age checks. Some platforms ask for a birth date, but kids can easily fake this.

Advanced tactics—like Roblox’s video selfies—force children as young as 9 to submit photos or video clips for AI analysis. According to Father Robert Ballecer, even these sophisticated methods can be circumvented with common AI tools, defeating their primary purpose.

Enforcement falls on tech companies, app store providers, and sometimes ISPs (Internet Service Providers), but these layers are easy to evade. For example, kids with technical skills or resources can use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks) to bypass regional blocks.

Unintended Consequences: Risk vs. Protection

According to Wesley Faulkner, while the goal is to shield young people from harmful exposure, blanket social media bans won’t affect all teens equally:

• Kids from privileged backgrounds with tech skills, money, or helpful parents can often find ways around restrictions.
• Marginalized or vulnerable youth may lose access to vital online support communities, especially if their families are unsupportive or abusive.
• Education and learning are affected, as platforms like YouTube contain vast educational resources many kids use for self-directed learning.

Leo Laporte also raised privacy concerns: requiring kids to hand over personal ID scans or videos to large platforms or governments increases the risk of data misuse and bias (e.g., AI age verifiers known to misclassify children of color).

Are Age Verification Laws Even Technically Feasible?

As discussed on This Week in Tech, decentralized systems like Mastodon (in the Fediverse) are not well-equipped to enforce such requirements. Wesley Faulkner suggested a need for a standard method where platforms can declare and negotiate what age restrictions or controls they support, but no universal system exists.

Legislation often pushes for blunt solutions. As Father Robert Ballecer pointed out, hardware companies like Apple may eventually be forced to tie device use to verified ages, given their access to digital IDs via passports and driver’s licenses. This could centralize even more power with tech giants, raising additional ethical and technical questions.

What Other Countries and Tech Companies Are Doing

Across Europe, countries are drafting laws to raise the minimum social media age or require parental consent for under-16s. In the US, several states, including Virginia, attempted daily use limits for minors, triggering lawsuits from tech industry groups.

Platforms including Meta and Roblox are experimenting with various forms of age checks, but all are subject to evasion or bias. Apple already allows app developers to query a device’s age group via their parental controls’ API, but this model isn't universal across all digital spaces.

Broad Takeaways

• Australia’s ban on social media for under-16s is a test case for similar potential laws worldwide.
• True age verification online is technically difficult, easy to circumvent, and raises serious privacy concerns.
• Enforcement shifts the burden to tech companies, app stores, and ISPs, but these measures are not watertight.
• Vulnerable youth may lose key support channels, while tech-savvy kids can often evade blocks with VPNs.
• Big tech companies may be forced into more invasive data collection practices, risking bias and misuse.
• The debate reflects a broader struggle between digital child safety and digital rights, including access, privacy, and equality.

On This Week in Tech, experts agreed: while the intention to protect children from harmful social media exposure is understandable, age-based bans risk new kinds of exclusion, privacy risks, and technical workarounds. The true solution may involve better digital literacy education and more thoughtful platform design, rather than blunt bans or dubious age checks.

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