Australia to double fine on platforms for flouting teen social media ban

Australia will double the financial penalty on platforms flouting its world-leading social media ban for under-16s to stem widespread evasion of the restrictions, the government said on Saturday. New legislation will lift the maximum fine to Aus$99 million ($68 million) for systemic breaches of the regulation and arm the e Safety online watchdog with greater powers to curb the platforms, it said. The independent regulator was “actively investigating” potential non-compliance by Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, the government said in a statement. “It’s clear big tech are not doing enough to comply with the law — there are still too many children on social media,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. “These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply.” Underage users have been dodging the restrictions by using accounts registered to older people, setting up fake accounts, or by logging into private browsers. The success of the Australian restriction is of intense interest to a growing number of nations that have introduced or are mulling similar bans — including Britain, Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and New Zealand. One of the first peer-reviewed evaluations of the Australian measure, published this month in the British Medical Journal, found “insufficient evidence” that it had much impact on social media use by youngsters. The researchers surveyed more than 400 young people immediately before the restrictions came into effect, and again three months after, finding “substantial circumvention” of the rules. There was little change for users aged 12-13, a slight decrease for the 14-15 age group and an increase in use for those aged 16 and older. ‘Bare minimum’ The government says it is clear the regulator needs more powers even though more than five million accounts held by under-16s have been blocked since the ban came into force on December 10. Under the new laws, the eSafety Commissioner