Australia warns social media platforms against age verification for all ahead of ban on children
Melbourne (AP): Australian authorities said Tuesday that social media platforms should not demand age verification for all account holders starting from December, when a ban on children under 16 having accounts goes into effect in the country.
The government released guidelines on how platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram should apply the world's first ban on children using social media from December 10. It says verifying the ages of all account holders would be unreasonable.
“We think it would be unreasonable if platforms reverified everyone's age,” said Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who drafted the guidelines. Her use of the word “reverified" suggested the platforms usually already had sufficient data to verify a user was older than 16.
She said the platforms have “targeting technology” to focus on those under 16.
"They can target us with deadly precision when it comes to advertising. Certainly they can do this around the age of a child,” she added.
Australia's Parliament enacted the ban last year, giving the platforms a year to work out its implementation. The platforms face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (USD33 million) for systemic failures to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts.
Critics of the legislation fear that banning young children from social media will impact the privacy of all users who must establish they are older than 16.
Inman Grant said claims the ban would see every Australian account holder subjected to age verification as a “scare tactic.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells said the government seeks to keep platform users' data as private as possible.
“These social media platforms know an awful lot about us" already, Wells said. "If you have been on, for example, Facebook since 2009, then they know you are over 16. There is no need to verify.”
Wells and Inman Grant will travel to the United States next week to discuss the guidelines with the platforms' owners.
Inman Grant said the platforms would need to demonstrate to her agency that they were taking “reasonable steps” to exclude children younger than 16.
“We don't expect that every under-16 account is magically going to disappear on December 10,” Inman Grant said. "What we will be looking at is systemic failures to apply the technologies, policies and processes.”
Melbourne's RMIT University expert on information sciences Lisa Given told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that the government's approach acknowledges that age verification technologies make errors.
“It's going to be up to each of the platforms to determine how they're going to comply and it will be interesting to see if they test the limits of the definition of reasonable steps,'” Given said.
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Brazil's Ancelotti raises doubts about whether Neymar will reach the 2026 World Cup
Sao Paulo (AP): Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti raised doubts about whether Neymar will be in his squad for the 2026 World Cup. The Italian has yet to pick the former captain since he took over in May.
“If Neymar deserves to be (in the squad), if he is, well, better than others, he will play in the World Cup and that's it. (But) I don't have debts to anyone,” Ancelotti said at a press conference in Washington on Friday following the draw.
Brazil is in Group C with Morocco, Haiti and Scotland.
“If we speak about Neymar, we have to speak about other players,” Ancelotti added. “We have to think about Brazil with or without Neymar, with or without other players. Our final list we will make after the FIFA fixtures in March.”
The 33-year-old Neymar has never fully recovered from a torn ACL in October 2023 during a World Cup qualifier against Uruguay. But he's been key for Santos in its fight to avoid relegation in the Brazilian championship.
On Wednesday, he scored a hat trick for Santos despite a muscular injury. He is expected to play again on Sunday against Cruzeiro.
Ancelotti said Brazil does not have a “referential player” at the moment, a tag for the most valuable player that Neymar has mainly worn since the 2014 home World Cup.
“We have one of the world's best goalkeepers, some of the best defenders, top midfielders and some players up front. I don't want players who want to be the best in the world, I want players who want to win the World Cup,” Ancelotti said.
Asked about his team's group, Ancelotti said Brazil can top it.
“We can win all three matches, our idea is very clear. We need to be competitive during the entire World Cup. Our goal is to play in the final and for that to happen you need to face very strong teams anyway.”
Brazil won the last of its five World Cup trophies in 2002.
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