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Enforcing Australia's social media ban on kids is possible but contains risks, report says

However a trial of the technology enforcement options found shortcomings and risks with all of them.

It looked at a variety of methods - including formal verification using government documents, parental approval, or technologies to determine age based on facial structure, gestures, or behaviours - and found all were technically possible. Verification using identity documents was cited as the most accurate method, but the report identified concerns that platforms may keep this data longer than required and was anticipating sharing it with regulators, both of which would leave users' privacy at risk. It recommended that the methods should be "layered" to create the most robust system, and highlighted that many of the technology providers were looking at ways to address circumvention, through things like document forgeries and VPNs (virtual private networks) which obscure the user's country.

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