AustraliaOnline Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024
Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 (Cth) No. 127, 2024, inserting Part 4A into the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth), No. 76, 2021
In force since .
A social media and minors rule binding private bodies.
- Audit expectation
- on_request
- Who audits it
- Regulator
- Where the report goes
- Produced on request
What it requires
- Applies to providers of age-restricted social media platforms as defined in section 63C (examples include Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, Threads, YouTube, Twitch, Kick and Reddit).
- Take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 from having an account (section 63D, in force since ).
- Do not rely on government issued identification documents or accredited digital ID services as the only means of age assurance; offer reasonable alternatives (section 63DB).
- The obligation binds while the High Court challenge on the implied freedom of political communication proceeds, because no injunction was granted.
These lines are LexLint's reading of the law's text.
If you get it wrong
Private right of actionNo
Penalties
Maximum civil penalty of 60,000 penalty units for a breach of section 63D (30,000 penalty units before ), which a court may raise to five times that figure, 300,000 penalty units, for a body corporate under section 82(5) of the Regulatory Powers (Standard Provisions) Act 2014.
Who enforces it
Enforcement body
eSafety Commissioner
Litigation
- Court
- High Court of Australia
- Docket
- Digital Freedom Project (for plaintiffs Macy Neyland and Noah Jones) v Commonwealth of Australia, High Court of Australia, plus a related challenge pursued by Reddit Inc
- Posture
- On the High Court agreed to hear a constitutional challenge based on the implied freedom of political communication. No injunction was granted, so the section 63D obligation took effect as scheduled on and remains in force while the challenge proceeds.
What it reaches
Age threshold
16
Covered services
Age-restricted social media platforms as defined in section 63C, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, Threads, YouTube, Twitch, Kick and Reddit. Section 63DB separately bars providers from relying on government issued identification documents or accredited digital ID services as the only means of age assurance; reasonable alternatives must be offered.
How the hook was established
express
What makes it apply
Data subject residence
Verification methods
Facial estimation, Third party service, Transactional data, Self declaration
What it makes you log
Who may demand the log
Regulator
Log retention
- As of
- Basis
- Purpose bound
- Prohibits retaining
- Personal information collected for the purpose of taking reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users having accounts, which must be destroyed after it is used or disclosed for the purposes for which it was collected
Logging duty
The Act requires reasonable steps to keep under-16s off an age-restricted platform and lets the Commissioner require a person, by notice, to give information and produce documents relevant to compliance, which a provider can meet only from what it has kept. It names no record of the age check and no retention period for compliance records. Section 63F(3) requires personal information collected for the age restriction to be destroyed after use.
- Kind
- Implicit
- As of
- Provision
- Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) s 63G(3)(b), with s 63D, as inserted by the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024
- Trigger
- age_assurance
What this law does
Requires a provider of an age-restricted social media platform to take reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 from having an account. Received Royal Assent on and the section 63D civil penalty obligation commenced 12 months later, on .
When LexLint raises it
When your app profile says your app operates a social platform.
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Page updated .