Age verification for young people on social media is a “trap” set by tech companies to avoid regulation in other areas, advocates have warned.
A parliamentary inquiry into the impact of social media on society has heard placing limits on the age a person is able to sign up to platforms like Facebook, X or TikTok would not make the sites any safer.
Dr Rys Farthing, director of research organisation Reset Tech Australia, told the inquiry that pressure for age-assurance technology was playing into the hands of the platforms.
“It’s [the platforms’] playbook to start talking about age verification the moment we talk about any particular safety enhancements or safety standards that could be implemented for kids, and I think it’s a bit of a trap,” Farthing said.
“There are multiple regulatory reforms that we could put in place that would fundamentally transform the digital architecture for young people without requiring age assurance, but it’s the only thing that tech wants us to talk about.”
Reset Australia’s director of policy and research, Dr Rys Farthing.
The federal government provided $6.5 million in May’s budget for a pilot program for age-assurance technology that would be developed to stop children accessing content online like pornography.
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton had vowed to ban children under 16 from accessing social media, should the Coalition win the next election, by putting in age-verification measures.
But Farthing said regardless of age restrictions, dangerous content would still remain on the platforms.
“We’ve actually got to change the way platforms work, we’ve got to change the architecture that’s available to young people, rather than just thinking about how do we verify them.”
AAP