Australia wants to prevent abuse in the use of social networks from continuing to cause mental health problems for minors. And, to this end, it has decided, directly, to prohibit its use by all citizens who are under 16 years of age. Whether or not they have permission from their parents to browse TikTok, Instagram, Facebook or any tool of this kind.
The measure, which will come into effect next yearestablishes penalties of up to 30.6 million euros for social media firms that fail to comply and continue to have minors under the established age browsing from Australia. What is not at all clear is how these companies are going to avoid it. Just as it is not at all clear that the barriers established by technology companies are going to be high enough to prevent younger people from overcoming them.
In the standard, which was approved by the Australian state last Thursday, it is point that “providers of age-restricted social media platforms may not collect government-issued IDs or require the use of an accredited service (…) as the only means to verify age and comply with the minimum age obligation ».
This implies that, in addition to having a tool of this kind, in order for the user to certify their age of majority, social media companies must offer another access option. The idea pursued by the Australian government with this movement is to give Internet users the option of not sharing a government identification with third parties in order to use applications.
For Australia, “reasonable alternative methods may include interactions with the user or age estimates based on facial characteristics”, that is, the use of facial recognition technology to determine the age of the user and decide whether the user appears to have the old enough to use the service. That, on paper, because technologically it is much more complicated.
«I very much doubt that the technology is so efficient as to define with a very small margin of error whether a user is more or less than 16 years old. I don’t know of any system that, based on your face at a biometric level, can achieve this,” explains Hervé Lambert, head of operations at the cybersecurity company Panda, in conversation with ABC.
«Children will undoubtedly be able to continue entering social networks even if the state prohibits it. “I don’t think that what Australia proposes ensures that the majority of minors stop using the applications,” the expert continues.
Jorge Flores, director of Screens Amigas, an association that promotes the healthy use of technology, moves along the same lines: «The recognition of biometric data, such as facial data, is a very delicate issue. And there are many possible traps that can be used here; For example, they can leave their cell phone with an older friend so that they can access an account.
Flores points out that, although he understands that the Australian ban responds to “protection purposes” for minors, it is not clear that it is proportional: “If we talk about protection, we also have to talk about access to the opportunities that we must guarantee to young people. And that’s where those provided by the Internet and social networks come in. Aren’t there other measures that can help reduce the risks and help them use social networks in a healthy way?
The danger of wear time
For Flores, a young person who enters social networks at the age of 14, but under the supervision of his parents, is much more likely to end up using platforms of this type well than a minor who enters these spaces for the first time when he turns 16. Furthermore, he points out that it would probably be more interesting to control the times of use of the applications than to prohibit them. Because the number of hours that young people spend with their eyes glued to the screen, swiping and consuming one video after another, has been a problem for some time.
For example, a recent study carried out by the Pompeu Fabra University and the Open University of Catalonia pointed out that 1 in 5 young Spaniards engage in risky consumption of TikTok, spending more than two hours in the application. This points out that various previous reports have confirmed that using social networks for more than 2 hours a day is associated with low self-esteem in terms of body image, a negative perception of one’s own mental health or an increased risk of stress. psychological or suicidal ideation.
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