Australia Expands List of Platforms Potentially Blocked for Under-16s

Published:

Australia Expands List of Platforms Potentially Blocked for Under-16s
Photo: Jessica Gow / TT

The Australian government has expanded the list of platforms that may be blocked for people under 16 years.

According to ABC several popular platforms such as Roblox, Whatsapp, Reddit and Discord have been added to the list of those that may be prohibited for the country's youth. The companies may be forced to pay millions in fines if they do not succeed in shutting out people under 16 years from their platforms.

Previously, giants like Meta, X, Snapchat and Youtube have been notified that their platforms may be included in the new law. They are encouraged to fill in a self-assessment tool with the country's internet safety authority to determine if they will be affected.

Some cases are quite clear but we still have to give them the same review, says Julie Inman Grant at the authority.

The authority will make its own assessment after receiving answers from the companies' self-assessments. They will primarily focus on the platforms that have the largest number of users under 16 and which they consider can cause the most harm, says Inman Grant.

The new law is expected to come into force on December 10.

Among the companies that have been encouraged to fill in the self-assessment tool and may later be blocked for people under 16 in Australia are, among others:

Meta, Snapchat, Youtube, X, Roblox, Pinterest, Discord, Reddit, Steam and Twitch.

Loading related articles...

Tags

Author

TTT
By TTEnglish edition by Sweden Herald, adapted for our readers

More news

Loading related posts...