Tech firms’ age checks fall flat

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Tech companies are failing to conduct detailed age checks on young users, undermining Australia’s under-16 social media ban, according to a new study. The law requires platforms to take “reasonable steps” to block young people from having accounts, and the Australian government has recommended multiple checks to verify a user’s age. But a team of researchers, who opened 50 test accounts with a declared age of 16, found that social media companies did not ask for any proof of age. Instead they are relying on photo-based age-verification software, without conducting further checks. This could partly explain why the ban has been so ineffective. Tools that analyse someone’s age based on a selfie have a wide margin of error and can be easily tricked by younger children who claim to be over the age limit.