Google casts doubt on Australia's social media ban for under 16s

As Australia nears the deadline for enforcing the law banning social media use by children under 16, Google remains doubtful about its enforceability.

The Australian government has long been grappling with a bill to ban social media use for those under 16. While the bill has the support of lawmakers, tech companies remain skeptical about its implementation. Now, Google says implementing such a law would be "extremely difficult."

Rachel Lord, YouTube's Senior Manager of Government Affairs in Australia, appeared before a parliamentary hearing on Monday to clarify Google's stance on the proposed bill and its potential impact on children's safety. According to Google's representative, the bill to ban children under 16 from using social media "may be well-intentioned but in practice risks unintended consequences."

Although YouTube was initially exempted from the legislation due to its popularity among teachers, it was added to the list of covered websites in July. Lord also described the bill as "extremely difficult to enforce" and stated that it would fail to achieve its goal of making children safer online. She further concluded that YouTube is not a social media platform, but rather a video streaming service that Australians use as a content library and learning resource.

"YouTube has invested heavily in designing age-appropriate products and industry-leading content controls and tools that allow parents to make choices for their families," Lord added. "Forcing kids to use YouTube without an account removes the very parental controls and safety filters built to protect them."

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is scheduled to meet Donald Trump in Washington next week, and Australian lawmakers are already concerned about Google's lobbying efforts there. According to Stef Lovett, Google Australia's Director of Government Affairs, Google's executives in the US are aware of the challenges the company is facing in Australia. Still, their response remains to be seen (via Reuters).

Australia passed the Online Safety Amendment in November 2024, giving social media companies one year to comply. The bill aims to make it illegal for children under 16 to use social media platforms and requires these platforms to deactivate the accounts of underage users.

The main challenge, however, is the age verification. Under the bill, social media platforms are required to use NLP (natural language processing)-analyzed and behavioral data to determine a user's age, rather than relying on government-issued ID.