March 31 (UPI) -- Australia said that social media companies aren't doing enough to prevent young teens from having accounts and that it will have to begin enforcement.
The country's social media regulator released a report on the social media landscape four months after a landmark law went into effect banning those younger than 16 from 10 platforms.
The agency, eSafety, said it has "significant concerns" about compliance from Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
"As a result of those concerns, I have announced today we are now moving from a compliance monitoring to an enforcement stance. eSafety has a range of enforcement powers available, including civil penalties of up to $49.5 million, but enforcement action demands sufficient evidence and that takes time to gather and hold up in a court of law," Julie Inman Grant, eSafety commissioner, said in a statement.
The report listed four key concerns: that messages to children encouraged them to keep trying to declare they were old enough, despite their declared age before the ban took effect; some platforms allowed children to keep trying to get their age verified to be 16 or older; reporting on age-restricted accounts has not been accessible; and some platforms haven't done enough to prevent children from having access.
