Meta has expanded its AI-powered teen safety measures to Australia ahead of a nationwide social media ban for all users under the age of 16.
From today, teens who are suspected of being under-18, but have listed an adult birthday, will be placed into ‘Teen Account’ settings. Teen settings have protections around who can contact teenage users and the content that they see.
These settings also prevent teens from going Live or the ability to turn off the protection that hides unwanted images in DMs.
In April, Meta introduced the technology in the US, proactively placing suspected account users into Teen Account settings. Meta claims that more than 90 per cent of active teen accounts on Instagram now have built-in protections to reduce unwanted content.
Parents in Australia will receive in-app prompts with tips for discussing with their teens the importance of providing accurate ages online—and tips to check and confirm their teens’ ages together.
Meta regional policy director Mia Garlick said that understanding age online is a “complex, industry-wide challenge, especially if people misrepresent how old they are”.
“We’ve spent many years and invested heavily to refine our AI technology to identify in a privacy-preserving way whether someone is under or over 18. By expanding these measures to Teen Accounts in Australia, we’re helping ensure teens have safer, age-appropriate experiences on Instagram,” she said.
“That said, we think there’s a better way to understand a teen’s age. We’d like to see App Stores, such as the Apple App Store or Google Play, give parents the ability to verify their teens’ age directly at the point of download, which could then send a signal to apps like Instagram regarding a person’s age range.”
A contentious law
Last week, the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, released regulatory guidance for social media platforms that sets out the steps they need to take to comply with the child social media ban.
The guidance says in order to comply with the rules, platforms must detect and deactivate or remove existing underage accounts “with care and clear communication”.
The Albanese Government has threatened to issue technology companies with fines of up to $50 million for failing to comply with the social media age ban, which comes into force on 10 December.
Critics of the laws question how the Big Tech companies can effectively age gate social media.
The government does not want users to hand over personal identification documents such as passports or ID cards to tech companies; instead placing the onus on platforms to use technology to predict an account user’s age.
Meta wants app stores to help verify under-16 users at the point of download, sharing a signal that can verify the age of users, while standardising age verification across the app ecosystem. B&T understands that neither Google or Apple are keen to share app store data.
Another source of contention is that the new rules only apply to social media account holders. Children will still be able to access YouTube and TikTok content without an account.
In an experiment using a factory reseted iPhone, the Guardian’s technology reporter Josh Taylor has found that scrolling YouTune and TikTok short form videos while logged out can quickly descend into a rabbit hole of gambling, violent and far-right content.
In the Guardian’s report, University of Queensland associate professor Nicholas Carah said that under-16s will just use these platforms and that the “algorithm (will) quickly adjust to their interests”, leading to a minimal impact on under-16 usage.
