There has been talk of a social media for children aged under 16 for some time, and two weeks ago, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced it would become a federal law.
However, many details of how the ban will work are still scarce.
How and when the age limit will be brought in is largely unknown.
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How will the age verification work?
One of the biggest outstanding questions is how social media companies will check who is over 16 years old.
Some social media networks simply ask their users to say they are above the required age.
Meta has slightly more sophisticated systems for detecting users’ age.
The Australian government announced on Friday it had awarded a contract to a UK-based organisation to trial different age-verification technologies that could be used to enforce a social-media ban.
Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) gives its tick of approval to different age-detection methods.
“We can test all kinds of age verification systems. This includes biometrics, database lookups, and artificial intelligence-based solutions,” the company says on its website.
The government said these would be considered as options both to block access to social media for children under 16 and to block access to pornography for people under 18.
The trials are set to begin immediately and a final report on them will be presented to the government next year.
We don’t know yet exactly what technology the trial will involve, or what ACCS will recommend to the government.
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What platforms will be included as social media?
Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok are the platforms most likely to be affected by the ban.
YouTube is also likely to be banned, though YouTube kids might be exempt.
Snapchat – which is widely considered to be a social media platform, might be exempt from the ban.
The company claims that it is a messaging platform, not a social media network.
Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has not confirmed whether or not Snapchat will be exempt from the ban.
When will the ban come into place?
Federal Parliament is only going to be sitting for two more weeks this year, but the Labor Government has support from the opposition, so it could be brought into law by the end of the year.
The government’s contract to test age-verification strategies is expected to return its report by mid-2025, meaning it could actually be brought into effect in many months’ time.
Will it even work?
Different countries around the world have tried social media bans to varying levels of success.
The UK restricts social media access to children under 13, while in France the age limit is 15 years old.
In China, guidelines were published in 2023 which proposed to ban young children from accessing the internet on mobile phones between 10pm and 6am.
Some experts have argued that blanket bans for the underage don’t work – and that Australia will be no different.