Australia: 4.7 million social accounts closed to under-16s, now watch out for fraud

Discussions on minimum age, identity verification and liability of digital platforms are intensifying in Europe and around the world, while Australia has become one of the main global laboratories for regulating the online safety of children and adolescents. Last December, the blocking of access to social platforms for those under the age of 16 came into effect with the aim of protecting them from risks related to mental health, addiction, harmful content and bullying. This groundbreaking law requires age verification by technology companies, equating social risk to alcohol or smoking, and was initiated by Julie Inman Grant, eSafety Commissioner for the Australian Government, who spoke at the event 'Growing up with Artificial Intelligence. Conscious choices in a connected world' organised by Telefono Azzurro on the occasion of Safer Internet Day.

In his speech, Inman Grant illustrated the approach adopted by Australia over the past ten years, based on three operational pillars: prevention through digital education, protection through reporting systems and removal of illegal content, and a systemic intervention that today finds full expression in a regulatory framework aligned with the European Digital Services Act. The main objective is to combat anxiety, depression and compulsive use of social networks among adolescents.

"This third pillar was missing in our legislative system," he explained, "and this is where proactive change comes in: technology is always running faster than policies and we cannot afford to fall behind as regulators. That's why we launched the future casting programme in 2017 and launched the Safety by Design initiative in 2018, which puts the responsibility back on the platforms themselves: assessing risk and damage from the outset, incorporating safety measures from the design stage, rather than intervening after the damage has already been done. Importantly, last week, eSafety published a transparency report indicating that eight of the world's largest technology companies were not doing enough to prevent serious crimes against children, such as grooming, sexual abuse and sexual extortion, on their platforms. This is not a question of technical capability, but of corporate will'.

Grant also pointed out that the delay in allowing under-16s access to social media is protective and allows children and teenagers to develop digital resilience and exercise critical thinking skills. With this measure, 10 major companies deactivated more than 4.7 million accounts belonging to Australian users under the age of 16 in the first month.

"Now we enter the most complex phase," Grant concluded, "to ensure that companies do not allow systemic circumvention of the rules. The regulatory guidelines make it clear that platforms are responsible for preventing circumvention through VPNs or identity forgery; they must provide easily identifiable reporting tools for accounts under 16 that are not intercepted; and they must demonstrate continuous improvement in the accuracy of their technologies and processes.