Snapchat says it has blocked or disabled 415,000 accounts in Australia tied to users under 16 since the country’s world-first social media crackdown took effect, while warning that some minors may still be slipping past age checks.
The platform urged Australian authorities to require app stores to verify ages before downloads as an “additional safeguard” for the law, which compels major platforms to stop underage users from holding accounts. The measures took effect on Dec. 10 and apply to Snapchat, Meta, TikTok and YouTube, among others.
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Companies that fail to take “reasonable steps” to comply face penalties of up to A$49.5 million (€28.6 million) under the legislation.
As of the end of January, Snapchat said it had blocked or disabled 415,000 Australian accounts belonging to under-16s. “We continue to lock more accounts daily,” the company said in an online statement.
But it cautioned that current tools are imperfect. Snapchat said age estimation technology is typically accurate to within two to three years, leaving “significant gaps” that could allow some younger users to bypass protections while mistakenly locking out some people over 16.
“In practice, this means some young people under 16 may be able to bypass protections, potentially leaving them with reduced safeguards, while others over 16 may incorrectly lose access,” the company said.
Snapchat joined Meta, led by billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, in calling for age verification to be handled at the app-store level to create a uniform barrier to circumventing the law. “Creating a centralised verification system at the app-store level would allow for more consistent protection and higher barriers to circumventing the law,” Snapchat said.
The company also questioned the scope of Australia’s ban, arguing that Snapchat is primarily a messaging service that helps young people stay connected to close friends and family rather than a typical social media platform.
“In the case of Snapchat — which is primarily a messaging app used by young people to stay connected with close friends and family — we do not believe that cutting teens off from these relationships makes them safer, happier, or otherwise better off,” the statement said.
While signaling it understands the government’s aims and wants to protect people online, Snapchat said it does not believe its platform should be covered by the social media ban. It also reiterated that it continues to assess and remove underage accounts and supports additional, systemwide age checks as a way to strengthen enforcement.
Australia’s rules are the strongest to date targeting underage social media use, placing the onus on platforms to verify ages and proactively restrict access. The debate over how best to enforce those limits — and how to do so without inadvertently excluding older teens — is now a focal point of the policy’s rollout.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
