Social media platforms could keep more Australian kids off if they actually tried

The most popular social media platforms among Australia’s youth are mostly ones they are not old enough to be allowed on. Luckily for them, at least in the moment when the endorphin hit of a “like” or share is desired, those platforms are making little effort to keep them away.

This is the finding of a new report from eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant. The most popular social media platforms for Australian children between 8 and 15 years of age are YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram, but only YouTube makes room in policy and specialized accounts for children in this age range. Self-attestation is the bar set before kids.  They have little trouble lifting or ducking underneath it.

“Even with the likely underestimation of the true numbers, we are still talking about a lot of kids. For instance, Snapchat says of its 8.3 million monthly active users in Australia almost 440,000 are aged 13-15, Instagram with around 19 million users says around 350,000 are in this age group, YouTube with well over 25 million users said 325,000 were aged 13-15, while TikTok with close to 10 million users reported around 200,000 were in this early teen cohort.”

Inman Grant believes the real numbers are “much higher.”

The platforms do appear aware of their own negligence, however, as “the vast majority” were found to have looked into more robust age assurance measures or tools.

“Behind the screen: The reality of age assurance and social media access for young Australians” was compiled from recent information requests made of the most popular social media platforms in the country.

Proactive age assessment tools are used by some platforms. Language analysis is used by TikTok, Twitch and Snapchat to identify children under 13.

Yoti’s facial age estimation is used by Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta, but only when people attempt to change their self-attested age. TikTok uses Yoti’s software too, but only during appeals against account bans. TikTok also uses Jumio’s ID Check in the same situation.

Ultimately, Inman Grant says the report is “more than a transparency report; it is a call to action.

Article Topics

age estimation  |  age verification  |  Australia  |  biometrics  |  children  |  digital identity  |  Instagram  |  Jumio  |  Snapchat  |  social media  |  TikTok  |  Yoti  |  YouTube