By Renju Jose
SYDNEY (Reuters) -Alphabet-owned Google on Monday said it would be “extremely difficult” for Australia to enforce a law prohibiting people younger than 16 from using social media, warning that the government’s initiative would not make children safer online.
Governments and tech firms around the world are closely watching Australia, which in December will become the first country to block the use of social media by people younger than 16.
Social media platforms will not be required to conduct age verification procedures; instead, they will be asked to use artificial intelligence and behavioural data to reliably infer age.
In a parliamentary hearing on online safety rules on Monday, YouTube’s senior manager of government affairs in Australia, Rachel Lord, said the government’s programme was well-intentioned, but it could have “unintended consequences.”
“The legislation will not only be extremely difficult to enforce, it also does not fulfil its promise of making kids safer online,” Lord said.
When asked if Google was lobbying officials in Washington to raise the issue when Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington next week, Google Australia’s government affairs director Stef Lovett said her U.S. colleagues were aware of the issues that the company faces in Australia.
In July, Australia added YouTube to a list of sites covered by the legislation – reversing an earlier decision to exempt it due to its popularity with teachers – following complaints from other tech firms. Google contends that YouTube is a video-sharing site, not a social media platform.
“Well-crafted legislation can be an effective tool to build on industry efforts to keep children safer online,” Lord said. “But the solution to keeping kids safer online is not stopping them from being online.”
Instead, she said, online safety tools must be used to protect children and parents should be given the controls to guide their online experiences.
Australia, concerned about the impact of social media on the mental health of young people, passed its Online Safety Amendment in November 2024. It gave companies a year to comply and they face a Dec. 10 deadline to deactivate the accounts of underage users.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus.)
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