On November 21, 2024, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 was introduced and read for the first time in the House of Representatives. The bill proposes amendments to the Online Safety Act 2021 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 bill

The bill 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 are set out in the legislative rules.

The bill 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 bill defines an age-restricted user as an Australian child who has not reached the age of 16.

Requirements under the bill

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

You can read the bill here, and track its progress here.