this post was submitted on 10 Jan 2025
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They've set it up so it's a legal mess. The platforms aren't given any mechanism to actually perform verifications (no double blind id system, for example) but are legally on the hook for each and every under-16 on the platforms. A quote in the article suggests it should be the app stores verifying which is even more fucking stupid.
Well, I know how that would go if I were a globe-spanning social media giant. Given that the entirety of the Australian market is roughly the size of New York state (~26 vs ~20 million people), I would say, "Nah mate, we just won't do business in Oz anymore. Bye."
Vanishingly few business make a "New York only" version of their product because it's simply not worth it. Australia already suffers under this problem for a great deal of physical products. Ask any computer nerd about that, when trying to source parts and often video game titles as well. Shipping things to the Antipodes and/or dealing with Antipodean regulations is expensive, for an objectively low number of potential sales.
It would not surprise me to learn if it follows that Australia generates roughly 1.7% of the revenue for Facebook or whoever as, say, India. So in other words, bupkis.
Why?
Probably because the internet isn't an app store
... I didn't say it was.
The quote says that app stores should be responsible for verifying age, but social media is not limited to apps - they're just one of multiple user interfaces for interacting with social networks. So that alone cannot solve the problem.
Sorry for the confusion
Because how would you do that on desktop? Or on a degoogled phone? Or if the download was via an apk from elsewhere?
Because the app store isn't the only way to install an app. It is trivially easy to side load apps and it's well within the technologic skillset of the average 12 year old.
They can also just use a web browser.