Violation of kids’ social media ban: Australia to sue FB, Insta, etc

Sydney: The Australian government is preparing legal action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube for allegedly failing to enforce the ban on social media accounts for children under 16, according to reports.

Communications Minister Anika Wells announced that the government would take the five platforms to court over their failure to adequately implement the age restrictions, introduced to protect children from harmful online content.

An investigation launched in March by the eSafety Commissioner, Australia's online safety regulator, found that numerous children under the permitted age continued to use existing accounts and create new ones despite the restrictions.

The findings pointed to failures in effective age-verification systems, raising questions about the platforms' ability to enforce the ban and prevent underage users from accessing their services.

The government had previously warned social media companies that they must take necessary measures to stop children under 16 from opening accounts. However, the investigation found that underage users continued to find ways around the restrictions.

In response to violations, Australia has raised the maximum penalty for companies breaching the law to 109.2 million Australian dollars.

The legal action targets Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, as well as the companies that own TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. None of the companies had publicly responded to the development at the time of the announcement.