New social media laws will trigger new platforms to target young teenagers, says Curtin University expert

Tech developers will have new social media sites up and running weeks after Anthony Albanese bans several platforms for teens under 16, an expert has warned. Curtin University Professor of Internet Studies Tama Leaver says he can “guarantee” a savvy app developer will “capture the market” of young teenagers booted off platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram when the Federal Government legislates its social media ban. Under Thursday’s announcement, the big platforms would be forced to take “reasonable steps” to ensure young users are not on their sites, even if they have parental permission, according to the government. But the government’s lack of clarity on what defines “social media” has raised concerns that tech gurus would build new platforms by working around the legislation when a ban comes into effect. “They will capture the market by simply building something that carefully, still provides some sort social affordances, but just does it in a way that looks like it’s not meeting the (government’s) definition,” Mr Leaver said. “That’s the problem with defining social media — as soon as somebody makes it a concrete definition, it will be trivial to get around it. “I think we’ll see them pop up within weeks (of the ban).” Mr Leaver said that while the newer apps would be stripped down compared to the likes of TikTok, tech gurus could still manage to make money through the underage — and soon-to-be-banned — market. “If we see that advertising is something that can be embedded in these apps pretty quickly, then yes, there’s the potential for other people to make money that would otherwise have been flowing through Meta or one of the other platforms.” “It might be an app that harnesses image-based messaging but nothing else and it’s likely that the definitions that are in the ban guidelines will say: ‘here are the three things that you have to do to be considered a social media platform’.” Mr Leaver also raised concerns — like several experts — about there being a lack of effective age assurance technologies available to enforce a ban. “Most kids understand how to get around their parents trying to ask them not to do something online,” he said. “I think the teens of Australia will have a pretty good idea of what the best VPNs are within a few minutes.” Mr Leaver said applications that promote anonymous messaging between schoolmates, simple messaging, or video games — which all allow for communication without age assurance technology — would rise in popularity. “Then there are questions around sites like Minecraft and Roblox, which are generally pitched to slightly younger kids,” he said. “On some of these platforms, you don’t need to log into them. The idea that you’re going to ban Reddit is farcical when you don’t have to log into Reddit to see content.” “I think the important issue is not exactly what kids use right now, but that we will see a game of whack-a-mole where there will be other things that ping up.” “Having heard what’s come out of Canberra today, and in the last couple of days, there is no sign that this government has any idea of how to implement this technically at all.” The social media companies would face penalties if they do not comply with the legislation, the Government has said. The onus has been placed on social media companies to employ their own age-assurance technologies to ensure young kids are kept off harmful online spaces. It comes as the Government is yet to complete its own $6.5m age assurance trial. How the companies would enforce the mandated age limit is not clear, but the Government did not rule out the potential for all users to be subject to biometric facial scanning or for the platforms to verify a given users ages using by accessing Government databases, or by uploading more identification. Mr Albanese pledged privacy protections would be put in place around any information collected. Mr Albanese claimed the decision to set an age limit of 16 had come after speaking with “thousands” of parents who were “worried sick about the safety of our kids online”. He said it was “calling time” on the harms social media was doing to young people, but acknowledged this wouldn’t “fix everything”. “We don’t argue that the changes that we will be legislating will fix everything immediately, we have laws such as people can’t buy alcohol, and from time to time that can be broken, but those laws set what the parameters are for our society, and they assist in ensuring the right outcomes,” he said.