Australia PM plays down privacy fears of social media ban for children

By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Monday social media firms would be required to destroy personal data used to verify ages of users, as part of what the government says is a world-leading ban on under-16s using the services.

Australia plans to trial an age-verification system that may include biometrics or government identification to enforce a social media age cut-off, some of the toughest controls imposed by any country to date.

"There will be very strong and strict privacy requirements to protect people's personal information, including an obligation to destroy information provided once age has been verified," Albanese told parliament on Monday.

The laws would impact Meta Platforms' Instagram and Facebook, Bytedance's TikTok and Elon Musk's X and Snapchat.

They have been criticised by figures including Musk, who said on Friday the legislation was a backdoor attempt to control access to the internet for all Australians.

The proposals are the highest age limit set by any country, and would have no exemption for parental consent and no exemption for pre-existing accounts. Platforms face fines of up to $32 million for failing to comply with the legislation.

The government has said it aims to pass the bill into law by the end of the parliamentary year on Thursday, fast-tracking it through the upper and lower houses of parliament.

(Reporting by Alasdair Pal in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates)