Popular gaming streaming platform Twitch has been included in Australia’s social media age ban, while Pinterest and the controversial Roblox have escaped, for now.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant confirmed last week that her office considered Twitch to be an “age-restricted social media platform”, meaning that it is covered by the impending social media ban for under 16-year-olds.
Twitch will now be required to take reasonable steps to ensure that children aged under 16 do not hold accounts on its platform or face a fine of just under $50 million.
Twitch caught in age ban
Amazon-owned Twitch is used to livestream or post content, typically users playing online games, and allows users to interact with others on this content.
The Australian legislation includes an exemption for platforms that have the “sole or primary” purpose of gaming, but the eSafety Commissioner determined that Twitch has the sole or significant purpose of online social interaction, with features designed to encourage user interaction, particularly through livestreaming.
Twitch already requires its users to be at least 13 years old, and for users aged under 18 to be supervised by a parent or a guardian.
While Twitch has been caught in the ban, the eSafety Commissioner has determined that it does not consider Pinterest to be covered by the ban, as online social interaction is not the main or significant purpose of it.
“Pinterest is more commonly used by individuals collating images for inspiration and idea curation,” the eSafety Commissioner said.
The eSafety Commissioner also said that it will not be undertaking any more assessments before the age ban comes into effect, meaning controversial platform Roblox will not be covered by it initially.
While the eSafety Commissioner has issued determinations that a series of platforms are subject to the ban, this will ultimately be decided by the courts.
Under the legislation, from 10 December all social media platforms that meet the government’s criteria will be required to take reasonable steps to ensure no-one aged under 16 has a profile on their service, or face fines of up to $49.5 million.
Twitch will now join Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, Kick, TikTok, X and YouTube in being covered by the age ban.
Meta makes a move
Last week, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta revealed how it plans to comply with this law, with the accounts of about 500,000 children in Australia to be removed.
Meta revealed that it would be blocking these accounts from 4 December, and has already begun notifying users it believes to be aged between 13 and 15 years old that they will be losing access.
“Soon, you’ll no longer be able to use Facebook and your profile won’t be visible to you or others,” Meta told its users.
“When you turn 16, we’ll let you know that you can start using Facebook again.”
According to government data, there are about 350,000 Australian Instagram users aged between 13 and 15, and about 150,000 Facebook users.
A recent leak of age verification documents provided to messaging service Discord, which mostly impacted Australians, has heightened data privacy and security fears around the social media age ban.
While Roblox will not be covered by the age ban, the company has recently announced that it will be launching an age verification system in Australia and two other countries.
This will require users who want to privately message other users to first verify their age.
This came after major concerns that the Roblox platform was being used by adult predators to groom and sexually exploit children.
The company is now facing a number of lawsuits in the US accusing it of sexual exploitation.
An estimated third of all Roblox users are aged under 13.
