Latest news with #LisaGiven
News.com.au
11-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Australians will soon have to verify age before using Google search
Australians will be required to verify their age when logged into Google or other search engines before the end of the year, as part of broader sweeping crackdowns on harmful content that include the December 10 ban on under-16s using social media. Under a raft of mandatory codes and standards currently being developed by Australia's eSafety Commissioner covering virtually every online industry, age verification of users will be a key priority. One of the draft codes approved last week covered search engines, which face fines of up to $49.5 million per breach. 'The types of checks they could do, they could ask for government-issued ID, they could do facial scanning to estimate your age, they could look at your previous history,' Lisa Given, Professor of Information Sciences at RMIT University, told 6PR on Friday. 'There are a number of different mechanisms under the code that the companies can use, but we don't know what they're going to pick.' Other age verification options available to search platforms under the code include credit card checks, digital ID and third-party verification. 'The key thing here is that the companies were involved in the creation of this code,' she said. 'So they certainly know this is coming, I expect that they are definitely going to comply. The question is which of these kinds of age-assurance mechanisms are they going to decide to choose.' Prof Given said many people 'are going to be very worried about their privacy'. 'We're used to being able to go online and look for information anonymously,' she said. 'Many of us do log into search engine accounts, we have a Google account we use that so we can keep track of bookmarks and things. But once people start having to prove their age … we know there are some flaws with things like age-assurance technologies, this is going to make people extremely nervous.' She noted that there were still a lot of unanswered questions about 'how this is going to work functionally'. 'Am I going to have to prove my age every time I log in?' she said. 'Is it going to be a one-off? Who is going to have the information about me? Some of the provisions allow for companies to rely on third-party digital ID, so if I have a driver's licence with the Victorian Government can I use that? That might make me feel more secure because it's government-owned and regulated.' If a user verifies their age and they are under 18, search engines will be forced to censor harmful content like pornography. But age verification will not be required if the user remains logged out. 'Many people will still be able to search for this content if they haven't logged in,' Prof Given said. 'The only requirement there at a minimum is that the companies have to for example blur images [of online pornography]. Otherwise your search experience is going to be the same.' John Pane, chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA), told the ABC the new rules did not do enough to keep children safer online given the potential privacy impact for millions of Australians. He said the results of the separate age-assurance technology trial had been 'pretty disheartening'. In addition to simply not logging in, Mr Pane added the rules could be circumvented using virtual private networks (VPNs). 'If the ambition of the government is to prevent children from accessing pornography, they're forgetting straight away the skills of these young people,' he said. Last week, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant announced that three of the nine codes submitted by online industries had been registered, covering search engine services, enterprise hosting services and internet carriage services such as telcos. She said the codes create safeguards to protect children from exposure to pornography, violent content, and themes of suicide, self-harm and disordered eating. 'These three codes needed to create a high level of protections, especially for kids, to be registered,' Ms Inman Grant said in a statement. 'In particular, the fact the search engine code has achieved this is incredibly important as search engines are often the windows to the internet for all of us.' Ms Inman Grant said she had sought additional safety commitments from industry on the remaining codes, including those dealing with app stores, device manufacturers, social media services and messaging and the broader categories of relevant electronic services and designated internet services. 'It's critical to ensure the layered safety approach which also places responsibility and accountability at critical chokepoints in the tech stack including the app stores and at the device level, the physical gateways to the internet where kids sign-up and first declare their ages,' she said. The eSafety Commissioner has asked industry to make further changes across some of the codes, including to strengthen protections around AI companions and chatbots to ensure these provide vital and robust protections. 'We are already receiving anecdotal reports from school nurses, that kids as young as 10 are spending up to five hours a day with AI chatbots, at times engaging in sexualised conversations and being directed by the chatbots to engage in harmful sexual acts or behaviours,' she said. 'We need industry to be building in guardrails that prevent their chatbots engaging in this type of behaviour with children. Industry indicated last week they would seek to make some of these changes shortly. I will consider these changes, and I aim to make my final determination by the end of next month. If I am not satisfied these industry codes meet appropriate community safeguards, I will move to developing mandatory standards.' The eSafety Commissioner tasked the online industry last year to begin drafting codes that would protect children from exposure to a range of age-inappropriate content across the online ecosystem. The codes were originally due to be submitted for registration assessment in December, but several extensions were granted before a final May deadline. Communications Minister Anika Wells is ultimately responsible for enforcing the codes. 'The government welcomes the eSafety Commissioner's registration of three new industry codes to protect children from pornography and other age-inappropriate content,' a spokesman for Ms Wells said in a statement. 'These codes were developed by industry and settled with eSafety. Our government has made no secret of its strong commitment to online safety for all Australians, while recognising the need to balance this imperative with protecting the privacy of users.'
RNZ News
11-07-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Australia is quietly introducing 'unprecedented' age checks for search engines like Google
By Ange Lavoipierre , ABC File photo. Photo: Unsplash / Thomas Park Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what has been described as a huge and unprecedented change. Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age-assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit. At the end of June, Australia quietly introduced rules forcing companies such as Google and Microsoft to check the ages of logged-in users, in an effort to limit children's access to harmful content such as pornography. But experts have warned the move could compromise Australians' privacy online and may not do much to protect young people. "I have not seen anything like this anywhere else in the world," said Lisa Given, professor of Information Sciences from RMIT, who specialises in age-assurance technology. "As people learn about the implications of this, we will likely see people stepping up and saying, 'Wait a minute, why wasn't I told that this was going to happen?'" From December 27, Google - which dominates the Australian search market with a share of more than 90 percent - and its rival, Microsoft, will have to use some form of age-assurance technology on users when they sign in, or face fines of almost $50 million per breach. The search results for logged-in users under the age of 18 will be filtered for pornography, high-impact violence, material promoting eating disorders and a range of other content. Despite the apparent magnitude of the shift, it has mostly gone unnoticed, in stark contrast to the political and media fanfare surrounding the teen social media ban, which will block under-16s from major platforms using similar technology. As for why so few people have noticed, it may be because the changes took place away from the halls of parliament, in the relatively dry world of regulation. They were contained in a new industry code - one of three registered by eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in June. All up, the regulator will register nine codes this year, governing the conduct of internet service companies in Australia. The regulator's media release about the new codes made no mention of the new age-assurance requirements, although Ms Inman Grant briefly mentioned the matter in her recent address to the National Press Club. "It's critical to ensure the layered safety approach … including on the app stores and at the device level - the physical gateways to the internet where kids sign up and first declare their ages." Her comments hint at plans for age checks for even more sectors of the internet. Experts are concerned that almost no-one seems to be aware of the shift. "This one has kind of popped out, seemingly out of the blue," Professor Given said. "It's not clear that there is a social licence for such important and nuanced changes," Digital Rights Watch chair Lizzie O'Shea said. "We would argue that the public deserves more of a say in how to balance these important human rights issues." Search engines will have a suite of options to choose from for checking the ages of their Australian users. There are seven main methods listed in the new regulations: They are similar if not identical options to those being considered as part of the teen social media ban, and some of them have been tested as part of the recent age-assurance technical trial, with mixed results. Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) said given the potential privacy impact for millions of Australians, the new rules for search engines may not do enough to keep children safer online. "One of the other concerns that we have is that there's no evidence as to the efficacy of the [age-assurance] technical controls," EFA chair John Pane said. "Based on the separate age-assurance technology trial, some of those results have been pretty disheartening." He also warned the new rules for search engines could be circumvented using virtual private networks (VPNs). "If the ambition of the government is to prevent children from accessing pornography, they're forgetting straight away the skills of these young people," he said. Beyond concerns about the accuracy of age-assurance technology and the VPN workaround, the new search engine rules will still allow users to access adult content simply by not logging in. Logged-out users will instead experience a default safety setting, which will, at a minimum, blur out violent and pornographic images in search results, but likely allow them to avoid the most stringent filters, such as omitting links completely. "This won't stop the teenager who wants to access pornography from accessing pornography … It won't stop the sharing of pornographic images," Pane said. "So really it is more performative than it is effective." The codes are being co-designed by the tech industry and its representative body in Australia, the Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI), which said the age checks for search engines were part of a bigger picture. "No single measure is completely foolproof," said DIGI's policy director, Jennifer Duxbury. Dr Duxbury said the approach was designed to "introduce layers of protection … to reduce exposure of minors to age-inappropriate and harmful content across the digital ecosystem." Social media platforms and search engines will be the first parts of the internet to introduce age checks for Australians, but they are unlikely to be the last. App stores, messaging services, porn sites and gambling companies are among a long list of players preparing for similar rules to come into effect. Draft versions of the remaining six industry codes covering those services and many more contain obligations for age-checking. The other codes are yet to be approved by the eSafety commissioner, but in the past the regulator has only rejected a proposed industry code because it was not tough enough, meaning the proposed age-assurance rules are very likely to make the final cut. "We would anticipate these mechanisms being deployed very broadly," Pane said. "It looks like it's becoming inevitable." Pane and other digital rights advocates say online age checking may soon be the norm for Australians. "It's the progression of the loss of our right to be anonymous online," he said. "This is very much the new reality, and I think there are significant privacy concerns here." The success of search engines, like social media companies, is built on their ability to create the most frictionless experience possible for their users. Tech experts say it is possible those companies might simply opt to rely on the user data they have already collected in order to guess a person's age. "Big tech players like Google have huge repositories of personal data," Pane said. "Even if they don't have [a user's] name, they know everything else about us from our browsing history and through advertising technologies. "Google may be able to rely upon information that they hold to infer that you are over the age of 18. "I think it's too soon to tell," he said. Search engines have not announced which age-assurance methods they will offer their users. Whatever their choice, Professor Given said many Australians would have no choice but to go along with it, because they relied on the many services connected to their account. "They've got [their search engine] linked with their Gmail and bookmarks - there's a variety of things that they're doing in the Google ecosystem," she said. "For someone who has an account, in order to access that type of functionality, they're going to have to prove their age. "The internet is a core structure in our lives. A spokesperson for Communications Minister Annika Wells said the government welcomed the eSafety commissioner's registration of three new industry codes to protect children from age-inappropriate content. "This is a critical step in implementing the Online Safety Act to keep Australians, particularly young people, safer online, and ensures that industry steps up to the plate to protect their users from harm," the spokesperson said. "This government has made no secret of its strong commitment to online safety for all Australians, while recognising the need to balance this imperative with protecting the privacy of users." - ABC
Daily Mail
11-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Anthony Albanese's strict new internet rules about to come into force: What you need to know
Australians will soon need to prove their age when logging on to the internet, under sweeping reforms from the Albanese government. The mandatory age checks follow the recent announcement of a social media ban for under-16s and have been described as an unprecedented shift in how Australians access online content. Under new regulations passed last month, major tech companies like Google and Microsoft must verify the ages of logged-in users in a bid to restrict children's access to harmful content such as pornography. To verify users' ages, search engines could use methods such as credit card checks, photo ID, facial age estimation, digital ID, or parental vouching - though companies haven't confirmed which systems they'll adopt. From December 27, these companies will be legally required to implement age-assurance technology when users sign in - or face fines of up to $50 million per breach. Search results for users under 18 will be filtered for content relating to pornography, violence, eating disorders, and other harmful topics. Professor Lisa Given, from RMIT's School of Information Sciences, said the code introduces a range of new rules that affect all users - not just minors. For example, providers must 'prevent autocomplete predictions that are sexually explicit or violent' and prominently display crisis-prevention information, such as helplines, in the results for queries relating to topics such as self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. 'Search engine providers will also have to blur some images in search results by default to reduce the risk of kids inadvertently accessing or being exposed to pornographic or violent material,' she said. 'And they will have to provide parental controls to limit or alter children's access to adult material. 'On top of these measures, the code requires search-engine providers to report to eSafety, invest in safety and moderation teams, and engage with community organisations.' She said the changes could affect privacy and may not protect younger people as much as they're intended to. 'I have not seen anything like this anywhere else in the world,' Ms Given said. 'As people learn about the implications of this, we will likely see people stepping up and saying, wait a minute, why wasn't I told that this was going to happen?' She also said that tech-savvy children may find ways to bypass the checks, such as using VPNs or logging in with an adult's account. 'As with all age assurance checks, there may be ways people can get around these new search engine controls. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant recently told the National Press Club that the rules are part of a broader push to create a 'layered safety approach', working alongside age restrictions on apps and devices. 'These provisions will serve as a bulwark and operate in lock step with the new social media age limits,' she said. 'It's critical to ensure the layered safety approach … including on the app stores and at the device level - the physical gateways to the internet where kids sign up and first declare their ages.' Social media platforms and search engines could be the first of many sections of the internet that will require age checks. App stores, messaging services, pornography sites and gambling companies head a long list of subjects preparing for rules to be put in place. Professor Given said she was worried that 'Australia is going down this path of bringing in age assurance for any and all internet access'. 'This is very much the new reality, and I think there are significant privacy concerns here,' she said.
ABC News
10-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Australia is quietly introducing 'unprecedented' age checks for search engines like Google
Australians will soon be subjected to mandatory age checks across the internet landscape, in what's been described as a huge and unprecedented change. Search engines are next in line for the same controversial age assurance technology behind the teen social media ban, and other parts of the internet are likely to follow suit. At the end of June, Australia quietly introduced rules forcing companies such as Google and Microsoft to check the ages of logged-in users, in an effort to limit children's access to harmful content such as pornography. But experts have warned the move could compromise Australians' privacy online and may not do much to protect young people. "I have not seen anything like this anywhere else in the world," said Lisa Given, professor of Information Sciences from RMIT, who specialises in age assurance technology. "As people learn about the implications of this, we will likely see people stepping up and saying, 'Wait a minute, why wasn't I told that this was going to happen?'." From December 27, Google — which dominates the Australian search market with a share of more than 90 per cent — and its rival, Microsoft, will have to use some form of age assurance technology on users when they sign in, or face fines of almost $50 million per breach. The search results for logged-in users under the age of 18 will be filtered for pornography, high-impact violence, material promoting eating disorders and a range of other content. Despite the apparent magnitude of the shift, it has mostly gone unnoticed, in stark contrast to the political and media fanfare surrounding the teen social media ban, which will block under-16s from major platforms using similar technology. As for why so few people have noticed, it may be because the changes took place away from the halls of parliament, in the relatively dry world of regulation. They were contained in a new industry code — one of three registered by the eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant in June. All up, the regulator will register nine codes this year, governing the conduct of internet service companies in Australia. The regulator's media release about the new codes made no mention of the new age assurance requirements, although Ms Inman Grant briefly mentioned the matter in her recent address to the National Press Club. "It's critical to ensure the layered safety approach … including on the app stores and at the device level — the physical gateways to the internet where kids sign up and first declare their ages." Her comments hint at plans for age checks for even more sectors of the internet. Experts are concerned that almost no-one seems to be aware of the shift. "This one has kind of popped out, seemingly out of the blue," Professor Given said. "It's not clear that there is a social licence for such important and nuanced changes," said Lizzie O'Shea, Chair of Digital Rights Watch. "We would argue that the public deserves more of a say in how to balance these important human rights issues," she said. Search engines will have a suite of options to choose from for checking the ages of their Australian users. There are seven main methods listed in the new regulations: They're similar if not identical options to those being considered as part of the teen social media ban, and some of them were tested as part of the recent age assurance technical trial, with mixed results. Electronic Frontiers Australia (EFA) said given the potential privacy impact for millions of Australians, the new rules for search engines may not do enough to keep children safer online. "One of the other concerns that we have is that there's no evidence as to the efficacy of the [age assurance] technical controls," EFA Chair John Pane said. "Based on the separate age assurance technology trial, some of those results have been pretty disheartening." He also warned the new rules for search engines could be circumvented using Virtual Private Networks (VPNs). "If the ambition of the government is to prevent children from accessing pornography, they're forgetting straight away the skills of these young people," he said. Beyond concerns about the accuracy of age assurance technology and the VPN workaround, the new search engine rules will still allow users to access adult content simply by not logging in. Logged-out users will instead experience a default safety setting, which will, at a minimum, blur out violent and pornographic images in search results, but likely allow them to avoid the most stringent filters, such as omitting links completely. "This won't stop the teenager who wants to access pornography from accessing pornography … It won't stop the sharing of pornographic images," Mr Pane said. "So really it is more performative than it is effective." The codes are being co-designed by the tech industry and its representative body in Australia, the Digital Industry Group Inc (DIGI), which said the age checks for search engines are part of a bigger picture. "No single measure is completely foolproof," said DIGI's policy director, Dr Jennifer Duxbury. Dr Duxbury said the approach was designed to "introduce layers of protection …. to reduce exposure of minors to age-inappropriate and harmful content across the digital ecosystem." Social media platforms and search engines will be the first parts of the internet to introduce age checks for Australians, but they're unlikely to be the last. App stores, messaging services, porn sites and gambling companies are among a long list of players preparing for similar rules to come into effect. Draft versions of the remaining six industry codes covering those services and many more, contain obligations for age-checking. The other codes are yet to be approved by the eSafety Commissioner, but in the past the regulator has only rejected a proposed industry code because it wasn't tough enough, meaning the proposed age assurance rules are very likely to make the final cut. "We would anticipate these mechanisms being deployed very broadly," Mr Pane said. "It looks like it's becoming inevitable." Mr Pane and other digital rights advocates say online age checking may soon be the norm for Australians. "It's the progression of the loss of our right to be anonymous online," he said. "This is very much the new reality, and I think there are significant privacy concerns here." The success of search engines, like social media companies, is built on their ability to create the most frictionless experience possible for their users. Tech experts say it's possible those companies might simply opt to rely on the user data they've already collected in order to guess a person's age. "Big tech players like Google have huge repositories of personal data," Mr Pane said. "Even if they don't have [a user's] name, they know everything else about us from our browsing history and through advertising technologies. "Google may be able to rely upon information that they hold to infer that you are over the age of 18. "I think it's too soon to tell," he said. Search engines have not announced which age assurance methods they'll offer their users. Whatever their choice, Professor Given said many Australians would have no choice but to go along with it, because they rely on the many services connected to their account. "They've got [their search engine] linked with their Gmail and bookmarks — there's a variety of things that they're doing in the Google ecosystem," she said. "For someone who has an account, in order to access that type of functionality, they're going to have to prove their age. "The internet is a core structure in our lives. A spokesperson for Communications Minister Annika Wells said the government welcomed the eSafety Commissioner's registration of three new industry codes to protect children from age-inappropriate content. "This is a critical step in implementing the Online Safety Act to keep Australians, particularly young people, safer online, and ensures that industry steps up to the plate to protect their users from harm," the spokesperson said. "This government has made no secret of its strong commitment to online safety for all Australians, while recognising the need to balance this imperative with protecting the privacy of users."
RNZ News
19-06-2025
- RNZ News
Six months out from social media ban, age-checking tech mistakes kids for 37-year-olds
Face-scanning technology tests could only guess age within an 18-month range in 85 percent of cases. Photo: Supplied/ABC Children as young as 15 were repeatedly misidentified as being in their 20s and 30s during Government tests of age-checking tools, sowing new doubts over whether the teen social media ban is viable. ABC News can reveal that face-scanning technology tested on school students this year could only guess their age within an 18-month range in 85 percent of cases. "It's definitely a problem," said Andrew Hammond, general manager of software consultancy firm KJR, which was tasked with running the trial. "So far, it's not perfect and it's not getting every child, but does that mean it's no good at all?" The full results of the age assurance technology trial were not expected to be released until later this year, but preliminary data had experts worried. "I don't think the ban is viable," said RMIT University information services professor Lisa Given, who had closely analysed the Government's policy. "Parents are definitely headed for a rude shock, in terms of what this legislation will actually deliver to them." Under the social media ban, more than 20 million Australians will be required to demonstrate they are 16 or older to log in to most major social media platforms. The ban is due to take effect in December, but the Government has yet to decide how it will be implemented, amid ongoing questions over whether age-checking technology is up to the job. The Government's technology trial, which has been running for eight months, was meant to provide some answers, but Professor Given said the public may be disappointed. "The accuracy level at 85 [percent] is actually quite low and an 18-month range is significant, when you're trying to identify a very particular age grouping," she said. "We are going to see a messy situation emerging immediately, where people will have what they call false positives, false negatives." Some students at Canberra's John Paul College, who previewed the technology as part of the Government's trial, were surprised, when their results were up to decades off the mark. Sixteen-year-old Andy was misidentified as 19, 37, 26, and 23 years old by various face-scanning tools he used. "I don't think the technology is ready yet to become a full-fledged primary defence system," he said. "It's pretty inconsistent." Seventeen-year-old Beth was given results ranging from 14-32. "I usually get told by other people that I don't look 17, I look older, so when it says 14, I thought… that's interesting." Her results from the other end of the spectrum were unwelcome for different reasons. "It's a bit insulting, because that's how old my aunty is," she said. "I don't want to look 32 just yet." Seventeen-year-old Nomi was especially concerned, when one tool mistook her for a 13-year-old. "I'm almost 18," she said. "If I try to sign up to an app and it tells me 'you're not meeting an age requirement', even though I am, that would be a problem for me." While the face-scanning results from the trial may not seem promising, Hammond said he was confident the ban would still work, because it did not rely exclusively on that tech. "If the solution to implementing the legislation was just facial age estimation, I'd say, 'Yep, it's probably not good enough'," he said. "However, it's just one of the tools in the toolkit that could be used." Age-verification providers are not discouraged by the early results either, arguing that other tech was always going to be necessary as a complement to get precise results. "You would never rely on age estimation for people who are literally at the age of 16," said Iain Corby from the Age Verification Providers Association, the industry body for age-check companies. "It was never going to be good enough for that," he said. One tool mistook Beth, 17, as being 32 years old. Photo: ABC News Corby said the early data reported by ABC News, showing an accuracy rate within 18 months for only 85 percent of students, is roughly what he expected. "I think even the best-in-class achieves about a year and a month, on average, above or below your real age." Among the methods tested were other age-estimation techniques that rely on biological traits, such as voice and hand movements, to guess the age of a user, but those methods struggled with the same accuracy issues and fewer companies offered the service. Another avenue was guessing a person's age based on their online activity, but that was also imprecise. Other tools offer a higher degree of certainty by inferring or even verifying a user's age, using data provided by third parties, such as banks, schools or healthcare providers. The strongest proof is a overnment-issued ID, such as a passport or a driver's license, but the legislation prevented social media companies from insisting on it. A last-minute amendment to the Bill, when it was passed back in November, meant platforms would be forced to offer users alternative methods to prove their age. That rule meant many Australians who could not easily provide those more reliable proofs might be forced to rely on less accurate methods, such as face scanning, if they wanted to use social media. "We do know, generally, that young people are going to be less likely to have a Government-issued ID that would satisfy some form of age verification," Given said. If facial scanning was on offer, under-16s who wanted to dodge the ban might be tempted to choose it anyway, in the hope they could fool it. "They might put glasses on, they might put make-up on, different hairstyle, different lighting, just to see if the system is actually able to accurately see that they're underage or over 16," Given said. The Government was expected to decide how the ban would work in the coming months, but one possible solution for the shakiness of facial scanning was a cascade-style system, similar to what we've see in bottle shops. Users might use face-scanning tech as a first hurdle and only be asked for further proof, if their result was within a 5-10-year margin of 16. "If you're within that margin for error, then you have to go to a second stage and find some other way of confirming that somebody is over the legal age," Corby said. Even so, everyone agreed it would not be perfect. "I'm optimistic, having seen the results," Hammond said. "Not necessarily making sure every 16-year-old doesn't get access, but making sure that most 16-year-olds don't get access to social media. "There's a number of solutions… and they have a level of accuracy. Now, whether the accuracy is good enough is a different question." Professor Given saw the end of the tech trial as an opportunity to reconsider the ban. "A responsible decision from Government would be weighing up the evidence in front of them and deciding whether that's actually a robust approach," she said. In the meantime, public expectations of the policy remained undeterred. "I think it's a really positive move for our young people," said John Paul College principal Craig Wattam. "I think that limiting their exposure to places that are potentially really dangerous is a really liberating thing." On the question of the tech's accuracy, he was also optimistic. "I guess this is the whole purpose of a trial," he said. "I'm confident that by the time we get closer to December… they may well have figured out more accurate ways to verify students' ages." A spokesperson for Communications Minister Anika Wells told ABC News the Government would be guided by advice from the eSafety Commissioner on how best to implement the ban. "We know that social media age-restrictions will not be the end-all, be-all solution for harms experienced by young people online, but it's a step in the right direction to keep our kids safer," they said. - ABC
