Australia's social media ban can be enforced 'effectively', official report finds

Australia's incoming prohibition of under-16s connected societal media tin beryllium "privately, efficaciously and efficiently" enforced, an authoritative study has found. 

The Australian authorities is banning young teenagers from societal media from December and commissioned the study to look into however the caller rules could beryllium enforced.

It explored a fig of methods for verifying users' ages, including AI facial property estimation, ID checks and parental consent.

The study recovered that though determination was nary "one-size-fits-all" approach, determination were a "plethora of approaches that acceptable antithetic usage cases successful antithetic ways".

"This is the astir broad and autarkic valuation of property assurance we've seen," said Julie Dawson, co-chair of the Age Verification Providers Association (AVPA).

"It shows the exertion works, that it tin beryllium privacy-preserving and that it is mature capable to springiness policymakers existent confidence."

Although the findings were celebrated by the property verification industry, the study did find inequalities successful however the tech guessed the ages of immoderate groups of people.

Non-Caucasian, older and female-presenting users faced "reduced accuracy" successful definite scenarios, and the information that indigenous radical were underrepresented successful grooming information "remains a challenge", according to the report.

Teenagers astir the property of 16 besides faced higher levels of inaccuracy, with 8.2% of 16-year-olds being rejected erstwhile they tried to verify they were 16.

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In those cases, the idiosyncratic would apt beryllium asked to verify their property different way, either with their ID oregon with parental consent, according to the report.

"It seems similar determination are a batch of variations successful accuracy," said Justine Humphry from the University of Sydney, who specialises successful online safety.

"That saltation is concerning, with the choky docket for the instauration of a strategy that volition request to beryllium robust and moving by the extremity of this year," she said.

According to the instrumentality that passed past November, societal media platforms volition beryllium liable for fines of up to AUS$50m (£25m) if they don't forestall children younger than 16 from holding accounts.

The exertion explored successful the study is the aforesaid utilized by galore net providers successful Britain since Ofcom's caller net information rules came into force.

The main enforcement of Yoti, 1 of the companies already offering wide property verification, called the report's results "very atrocious quality for galore opponents who person persistently claimed that adjacent starring information tech cheque methods are inaccurate, immature, insecure, privateness chilling & discriminatory."