What is Australia’s Online Safety Amendment about? | Explained Premium

Australia passes bill to prevent children under 16 from social media, imposing penalties on non-compliant platforms.

The story so far:

Australia’s House of Representatives recently passed the “Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill, 2024” which imposes obligation on certain social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 years of age from having an account. The Bill shall also make an amendment to the Age Discrimination Act, 2024 to facilitate this reform. Once the Bill is passed by the Senate, it will become law on getting the Royal Assent.

There is no current legislated minimum age for social media use in Australia. Children are usually unable to create social media accounts under the age of 13 years, a restriction imposed by global platforms in line with the United States’ law on children’s online privacy.

The object of the amendment (a new Part 4A- social media minimum age inserted in Australia’s existing the Online Safety Act of 2021) is to ‘reduce the risk of harm to age-restricted users from certain kinds of social media platforms’. The age-restricted user shall mean ‘an Australian child who has not reached 16 years’.

The age-restricted social media platforms (ARSMP) affected by the proposed amendment would cover (with some exclusions) an electronic service which enables online social interaction between two or more end-users, and allows end-users to post material on the service.

The Australian Minister of Communication clarified that the government expects the ARSMP will, at minimum, include ‘TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, Instagram, X, among others. These services will be required to take ‘reasonable steps’ to prevent persons under 16 years of age from creating and holding an account. However, the Minister shall also have discretion to keep ‘a digital service out of the scope of the definition of ARSMP’.

The law proposes that the providers of ARSMPs ‘must take reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users having accounts with the age-restricted social media platforms’. Failing to meet this requirement may result in a maximum civil penalty of $49.5 millions. However, what is meant by ‘reasonable steps’ is not defined within the Bill.