The most immediate resistance to the new obligation has come from Elon Musk’s platform, X (formerly Twitter), which is petitioning to delay the ban by six months
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner is pressing a wide array of online platforms, from social media giants to gaming sites, to immediately assess their compliance with a landmark law that bans users under the age of 16 from having accounts.
The legislation, which is set to come into effect on December 10, is significantly broadening the definition of platforms subject to mandatory age restrictions, catching companies that are not traditionally considered social media.
Julie Inman-Grant, the eSafety commissioner, has written to 16 platforms—including giants like Meta’s Facebook and Instagram, alongside gaming leaders like Steam, Roblox, and messaging apps like Discord—urging them to self-assess their regulatory obligations. Also implicated are streaming sites Twitch and Kick, online dating conglomerate Match Group, and code repository GitHub.
The most immediate resistance to the new obligation has come from Elon Musk’s platform, X (formerly Twitter), which is petitioning to delay the ban by six months.
X argues it was not given sufficient opportunity to provide feedback on the “reasonable steps” required to block access for users under 16, claiming it was given “mere weeks to interpret, plan, and deploy compliance measures.” The company has also raised “serious concerns” that the ban may be unlawful and incompatible with Australia’s Privacy Act and international rights commitments.
However, X’s claim of insufficient time flies in the face of the Australian government’s recent Age Assurance Technology Trial (AATT), which identified several “market-ready tools” for age verification and facial age estimation. Critics note that the company has had ample time to prepare, given that the legislative process has been public for years.
The debate over the technology’s effectiveness remains contentious. The Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Digital Child insists that current age estimation algorithms are not yet accurate enough to reliably distinguish between users who are under and over 16, recommending industry work with a safety buffer age of two or three years.
Anticipating legal and technical objections, the eSafety Commissioner has appointed an academic advisory group of eleven experts to support a “robust and transparent evaluation” of the law’s implementation and outcomes.
The group, which includes experts in adolescent mental health, children’s digital rights, and digital parenting, will be led by Stanford University’s Social Media Lab. Its role is to provide independent, evidence-based guidance and examine the short- and medium-term impacts of the obligation on young people and their families.
Australia’s regulatory push is echoed internationally, as the UK approaches its own key age assurance deadline next week. Tuesday, September 30, marks the deadline for the world’s largest social media platforms, including TikTok, YouTube, and Roblox, to prove to the regulator Ofcom that they are in compliance with new online safety laws.
Andy Lulham, an online safety expert and COO at UK age assurance provider Verifymy, called Ofcom’s focus on platforms most popular with children “a sensible approach that will lead to widespread protection.” He reiterated the industry mantra that while age assurance technology is useful, it is not “a silver bullet,” requiring continued collaboration between platforms, regulators, and educators.
