Canberra, March 31 – The Australian government said on Tuesday that it is investigating five social media platforms for failing to comply with the country's world-first ban on social media for children under 16.
In its first report on the social media minimum age requirement, the federal government's eSafety Commissioner said on Tuesday that it has "significant concerns" about the compliance of major social media companies, including Facebook and Instagram, with the laws that came into effect in December.
Under those laws, social media companies that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 from accessing their platforms face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (approximately $33.9 million).
The eSafety Commissioner's report said that it has identified "poor practices," including platforms allowing children to repeatedly attempt age verification methods to obtain a 16+ outcome and failing to provide pathways for reporting age-restricted accounts.
The report stated that the five platforms have been notified of the specific issues, and an investigation into potential non-compliance has commenced.
Australia's Communications Minister, Anika Wells, said in a statement that she expects the online safety watchdog to "take strong action" against companies that have systematically failed to uphold their legal obligations, according to Xinhua news agency.
"If these companies want to do business in Australia, they must obey Australian laws," she said.
Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, said that her office is now moving into an enforcement stage of the social media ban.
As of January, over 4.7 million accounts belonging to children were deactivated in the first days of Australia's world-first social media ban for under-16s.
Data released by the government's eSafety commissioner had revealed that social media companies removed access to around 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children under 16 in the days after the ban took effect on December 10.