On December 10, 2024, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 received Royal Assent. 

The Act amends the Online Safety Act to require social media platform providers to take measures to prevent children who have not reached a minimum age from having accounts on age-restricted platforms. 

Scope of the Act

The Act applies to age-restricted social media platforms, which are defined as electronic services that meet the following conditions:

• the sole purpose, or a significant purpose, of the service is to enable online social interaction between two or more end users;
• the service allows end users to link to, or interact with, some or all of the other end users;
• the service allows end users to post material on the service; and
• such other conditions (if any) as set out in the legislative rules.

The Act clarifies that an electronic service is not an age-restricted social media platform if none of the material on the service is accessible to, or delivered to, one or more end users in Australia or if the service is specified in the legislative rules. Further, the Act defines an age-restricted user as an Australian child who has not reached the age of 16 years.

Requirements under the Act

Under the Act, a provider of an age-restricted social media platform must take reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users from having accounts with the platform. Additionally, the Act provides privacy protections for information collected by social media platforms to determine whether or not an individual is an age-restricted user. Specifically, the Act requires social media platforms to destroy such information after using or disclosing it for the purposes for which it was collected.

Next steps

The Act came into force the day after receiving Royal Assent.

You can read the Act here and view its legislative history here.