Australia social media teen ban software trial organisers say the tech works

SYDNEY - Some age-checking applications collect too much data and no product works 100 per cent of the time, but using software to enforce a teenage social media ban can work in Australia, the head of the world’s biggest trial of the technology said on June 20.

The view from the government-commissioned Age Assurance Technology Trial of more than 1,000 Australian school students and hundreds of adults is a boost to the country’s plan to keep under 16s off social media.

From December, in a world first ban, companies like Facebook and Instagram owner Meta, Snapchat and TikTok must prove they are taking reasonable steps to block young people from their platforms or face a fine of up A$49.5 million (S$41.2 million).

Since the Australian government announced the legislation in 2024, child protection advocates, tech industry groups and children themselves have questioned whether the ban can be enforced due to workarounds like Virtual Private Networks, which obscure an internet user’s location.

“Age assurance can be done in Australia privately, efficiently and effectively,” said Mr Tony Allen, CEO of the Age Check Certification Scheme, the UK-based organisation overseeing the Australian trial.

The trial found “no significant tech barriers” to rolling out a software-based scheme in Australia, although there was “no one-size-fits-all solution, and no solution that worked perfectly in all deployments,” Mr Allen added in an online presentation.

Mr Allen noted that some age-assurance software firms “don’t really know at this stage what data they may need to be able to support law enforcement and regulators in the future.

“There’s a risk there that they could be inadvertently over-collecting information that wouldn’t be used or needed.”

Organisers of the trial, which concluded earlier in June, gave no data findings and offered only a broad overview which did not name individual products.