Two more popular online platforms have been caught in the net of the Australia’s tough new social media minimum age laws, which will come into effect within weeks.
Just a day after its co-founder and chief executive reportedly became a billionaire, Reddit was named in an updated list of sites that will be “age-restricted” from December 10, with teens under 16 needing to be booted off.
Australian livestreaming platform Kick was the second addition to the list announced by the government on Tuesday evening, joining Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and X, formerly Twitter.
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Those companies face fines of up to $49.5 million if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to stop under-16s from holding accounts with them.
About 1.5 million profiles will reportedly need to be deactivated.
Online gaming and standalone messaging apps are among services that are excluded under the legislation.
Discord, Roblox, Steam, YouTube Kids, Lego Play and WhatsApp have been informed by Australian authorities they are not subject to age restrictions.
‘No place for predatory algorithms’
The government said the minimum age laws are about protecting young Australians from “pressures and risks that users can be exposed to while logged in”.
“There’s a time and place for social media in Australia, but there’s not a place for predatory algorithms, harmful content and toxic popularity metres manipulating Australian children,” Communications Minister Anika Wells said.
“Online platforms can target children with chilling control. We are mandating they use that sophisticated technology to protect them.
“I have met with major social media platforms in the past month so they understand there is no excuse for failure in implementing this law.”
While eight platforms were found by eSafety to require age-restrictions, their “assessments will be ongoing” and they could be removed from the list, which will be “dynamic”.
Reddit — a social media giant where users can join communities and vote up or down posts they like or dislike — previously told an inquiry into the influence of international digital platforms that Australia “forms our fifth largest user base”, with 90 per cent above the age of 18.
“Users, volunteer community moderators, and Reddit employees each play a vital role in governance on the platform,” Reddit said in its submission.
“Content moderation duties are therefore shared among a wide range of users, effectively empowering users to actively participate in their own governance.”
It said its content policy forbids “hateful content, encouraging violence, sharing personal information or intimate imagery without consent, and other behaviour that has no place on Reddit”.
7NEWS.com.au has reached out to Reddit for comment.
Kick is a platform founded in Melbourne in 2022 that allows users to broadcast or watch livestreams, and is popular with gamers.
Earlier this year, it was thrown into the spotlight when a prominent user died during a broadcast.
“Kick has been engaged with eSafety for some time and will meet our obligations from December 10,” a spokesperson told 7NEWS.com.au.
“With over 80 million users, we’re taking on tech giants from our Melbourne headquarters and proving that Australian-made platforms can compete globally. “Australia represents a small share of our global audience, but Kick was built here and we’ll keep backing our local creators.
“We’ll continue engaging constructively on these new rules to support fair outcomes: protecting online safety without compromising privacy or limiting the creative freedom that drives Australia’s creator economy.”
Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok will comply with Australia’s looming social media ban but the latter platform’s public policy lead claims the restrictions could push young people into “darker corners” of the internet where the rules don’t exist.
Some Australian influencers and content creators with big followings online have shifted overseas to beat the ban.
Julie Inman Grant , Australia’s eSafety Commissioner” said pushing back a child’s access to social media “gives them valuable time to learn and grow, free of the powerful, unseen forces of opaque algorithms and endless scroll”.
“This important normative change will be invaluable to parents and young people alike – creating friction or a check in the online ecosystem that previously did not exist,” she said.
“I’ve also said consistently that age restricting social media is one important tool in our holistic approach to online safety. Ultimately, all online platforms should be building less harmful, age-appropriate experiences through safety by design.”
The government has encouraged parents to visit eSafety.gov.au for resources on the new social media restrictions.
