Policy Analysis Solution: Online Safety Amendment (Minimum Age) Bill 2024

Background and Context of the Policy

According to the Australian Government (2024), Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 (Cth) is one of the revolutionizing changes for protection of children who have online access in Australia. The Bill, amending the wider Online Safety Act 2021 and taking effect in December 2025, brings a legally enforceable minimum age of 16 of who will be allowed to access certain social media websites. The social media providers under the legislation should take measures to ensure that children under the established age of 16 are not allowed to create accounts and any non-compliance will result in penalties that are also outlined. It is a regulatory framework where the government will participate in addressing and management of the online risks, and not just leave it to the operators of the platform.

In addition to the legislative framework, the Age Assurance Technology Trials were initiate as a 6.5-million-dollar project to test the practicability, precision and reliability of various age-verification technologies. According to the Australian Government Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sports and the Arts (2025), the Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS), involved over 60 technologies provided by 48 vendors and evaluated solutions from the spectrum of digital identity verification through to facial-feature recognition. Not only did the trials attempt to determine the technical performance of these systems, but also the compatibility of these systems with existing digital infrastructures of social media and online services. This is a significant preparation measure as it guarantees that the technological processes will be able to realistically meet the needs of law-enforcement without affecting accessibility, fairness, or privacy. Additionally, the trials provide policymakers with objective evidence to finalize execution, foresee ethical issues, and mitigate possible differences in precision between various demographic groups, thus assuring policymakers that the objective of the policy will remain practically achievable.

Government Concerns, Policy Objectives, and Ethical Considerations

Government Concerns 

The major issue which the Australian Government is concerned with is the protection of young Australians against the various threats related to the use of social media, the exposure to inappropriate material, online bullying, grooming, and online predators. Children are very susceptible to any malicious interaction, manipulative and privacy invasion because social media is very addictive and most minors have access to social media. As highlighted in the explanatory memorandum to the Bill, social media can serious negative implications to children’s psychological well-being, sleep patterns, attention span, and stress levels, while also increasing the risk of exposure to harmful or age-inappropriate content. Furthermore, the issue gets worst with the sophisticated algorithms employed by social media companies, which are intended to enhance user engagement over well-being, resulting in widespread exposure of children to dangerous material (Costello et al., 2023).

Policy Objectives 

The purpose of Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 is to address these risks by standardizing and enforcing the minimum age of 16 for individuals to hold social media accounts. Age-restricting service providers should have an effective system of age-verification and must take punitive measures accordingly for non-compliance. The core objective of the policy is to reduce children’s exposure to harmful online content, while the secondary aim is to push social media companies to prioritise safety measures and responsible platform design. Additionally, the Age Assurance Technology Trials were authorised to explore technological solutions that ensure enforcement mechanisms as practical and can be applied fairly across different populations.