Alphabet-owned Google has warned that Australia’s new law banning people under the age of 16 from using social media platforms will be “extremely difficult” to implement and may fail to achieve its goal of making children safer online.
Australia is set to become the first country in the world to block social media access for under-16s when the law comes into effect in December. Under the Online Safety Amendment passed in November 2024, companies have until December 10 to deactivate the accounts of underage users.
However, the legislation does not require platforms to carry out age verification checks. Instead, it mandates the use of artificial intelligence and behavioural data to infer users’ ages—a measure Google believes is insufficient and problematic.
Speaking at a parliamentary hearing on online safety rules on Monday, YouTube’s senior manager of government affairs in Australia, Rachel Lord, described the government’s plan as well-intentioned but warned it could have “unintended consequences.”
“The legislation will not only be extremely difficult to enforce, it also does not fulfil its promise of making kids safer online,” Lord said. She argued that the focus should be on empowering parents and deploying online safety tools rather than restricting access.
The new law has attracted international attention as governments and technology companies watch how Australia implements the unprecedented measure. In July, the government added YouTube to the list of covered platforms, reversing an earlier exemption following complaints from other tech companies. Google has maintained that YouTube is a video-sharing service rather than a social media platform.
When asked if Google was lobbying U.S. officials to intervene ahead of Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s visit to Washington next week, Google Australia’s government affairs director Stef Lovett confirmed that colleagues in the U.S. were aware of the company’s concerns.
Lord stressed that “well-crafted legislation can be an effective tool to build on industry efforts to keep children safer online,” but insisted that banning access was not the right solution.
Australia introduced the law amid growing concerns about the impact of social media on young people’s mental health. While the government hopes the ban will offer greater protection, major tech firms argue that enforcement challenges could limit its effectiveness.
