Google admitted on Monday that enforcing Australia’s upcoming ban on social media use for under-16s will be “difficult“, during a hearing before Australian lawmakers.
The legislation, which is set to come into effect on 10 December, aims to prevent all children under the age of 16 from creating accounts on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, TikTok and X.
Companies found to be in breach of the law could face fines of up to €28 million.
The strict law is intended to protect young Australians from “the pressures and risks that users can be exposed to while logged in to social media accounts.”
Rachel Lord, Google and YouTube’s senior manager of public policy in Australia, told a parliamentary committee that while the legislation is well intentioned, it could have “unintended consequences.”
“The legislation will not only be extremely difficult to enforce, it also does not fulfil its promise of making kids safer online. The solution to keeping kids safer online is not stopping them from being online,” she said.
When the law was initially passed in 2024, YouTube was not included, but it was later added to the list this summer following recommendations from the country’s internet regulator.
