TikTok vows to comply with teen social media ban
Kat Wong and Grace Crivellaro |
TikTok is urging parents to report their children to the platform if they believe they are circumventing a world-leading ban on social media.
The popular vertical video platform on Friday said it would begin notifying those younger than 16 their accounts would become inactive, after the ban comes into effect on Wednesday.
The platform will use a multi-layered approach to identify accounts used by teenagers who might not have provided their correct date of birth.
A teenager’s access will be removed if TikTok believes the user is younger than 16.
“We understand that these changes may be upsetting, but they are necessary to ensure that TikTok complies with Australian law,” the platform said in a statement on its website.
“If an Australian parent believes their teen may have provided an incorrect date of birth, they can report this in-app and online.”
Those younger than 16 will be given options to download information from their account to preserve it or delete their account when the ban comes into effect.
If a user older than 16 is removed from the platform, the decision can be appealed, with the app offering methods such as facial age estimation, credit card verification or the use of government-approved ID.
Data will be deleted once the appeal is complete.
“For more than a decade, many organisations and companies have tried to solve the complex challenge of online age assurance,” TikTok said.
“Despite these efforts … there is still no single method that can be used to effectively confirm a person’s age in a way that also preserves their privacy.”
From Wednesday, those younger than 16 will be booted off age-restricted platforms identified by eSafety – including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Threads and Twitch – as part of the government’s bid to protect children from online harms.
The list might expand if kids migrate to other platforms after the ban takes effect.
Meta began revoking access to existing users and blocking new accounts for those younger than 16 on Thursday, impacting 350,000 Instagram users aged 13 to 15.
The eSafety commissioner must be satisfied platforms have taken “reasonable steps” to prevent under 16s from holding an account, or they will face fines of up to $49.5 million.
Opposition communications spokesperson Melissa McIntosh slammed the rollout of the policy as inconsistent, saying she was concerned about age verification technology.
“The data is then stored offshore and we do not know how long people’s private information is going to be stored in these offshore data centres,” she told ABC Radio.
Rules requiring search engines to blur pornography and high-impact violence will come into effect on December 27 as part of the online watchdog’s bid to protect children from harmful content.
About one in three young people first encountered pornography unintentionally before they turned 13, according to eSafety research.
The majority of young people – 71 per cent – who unintentionally came across the content ignored it, although some described unintentional encounters as frequent, unavoidable and unwelcome.
“We know that a high proportion of this accidental exposure happens through search engines as the primary gateway to harmful content,” eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.
“Once a child sees a sexually violent video, for instance, maybe of a man aggressively choking a woman during sex, they can’t cognitively process, let alone unsee that content.”
Ms Inman Grant expects this will cause search engines to operate like safe search modes already available on Google and Bing.
Australians seeking information related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders will be redirected to appropriate mental health services under further requirements from the eSafety Commissioner.
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AAP
