Australian regulator says that children use social media regularly

More than 80% of Australian children between the ages of eight to 12 use social media or messaging services that are for more than 13, according to new research only.

It comes as a plan to implement Australia Total social media ban for under -16 It is expected by the end of this year.

The country’s internet regulator, eSafeety, found YouTube, Tiktok and Snapchat were the most popular platforms used by young children.

The regulator accused the app for “lack of strong interventions” to check the age of its users.

Companies in the question – Discord, Google (YouTube), Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Reddit, SNAP, Tiktok and Twitch – did not respond to the request for immediate comments.

Users of all these platforms must be 13 and more to have an account, although there are some exceptions.

For example, YouTube has a family link – when an account is accessible for children under 13 years of age under the supervision of a guardian – and different apps youtube kids, which are specially designed for children. .

In the report, the use of YouTube children was not included for this reason.

“The findings of this report would be an auxiliary input to guide the next stages,” said Essefety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant.

Australia’s strong trend on social media for young people is being seen by the rest of the world – including Britain Not out To copy its ban for young users.

Researchers questioned more than 1,500 children in Australia between eight and 12, about their use of social media and messaging platforms.

He found that 84% of the surveyed surveyed used at least one social media or messaging service from the beginning of last year.

More than half of them used it through the account of the parents or careful.

One -third of children using social media or messaging services had their own account, and 80% of them helped parents or careful establish their account/account.

The study also found that only 13% of children who had an account had stopped them to be under 13 by social media companies or messaging services.

The authors of the report said, “These findings indicate that the user experience has an incompetent in the industry about the steps taken to assess the age of the end-users at various points.”

“However, there is one thing they have: Lack of strong interventions at the point of account sign-up preventing someone under 13 years of age to provide a false age or date of birth to establish an account. For.”

Regulatory report also surveyed The platform themselves, which were asked how they verify the age of young users.

Snapchat, Ticketkok, Twitch and YouTube told the authors that they deployed equipment and technology to find out if a user could be under 13 years of age, when they were using service.

The report said, “Proactive tools and technologies may actively engage with a service on a user (such as connecting with others, communicating with others, sharing materials and making materials) addressing relevant signals To apply, “the report states.

“This may require time and engagement to detect a child under the age of 13, and the child may be exposed to risk and loss at that time.”