Australia finds age detection tech has many flaws but will work

Australia’s trial of age assurance technology has found it’s up to the task of preventing children under 16 years of age from using social media, despite many problems.

Australia’s government ordered the trial after its November 2024 announcement of a policy to keep kids off social media. At the time, few nations had tried a similar scheme, so Canberra wanted to survey the field of relevant technologies and make sure they are up to the job.

On Friday the team that ran those trials published its preliminary findings [PDF], the main one being “Age assurance can be done in Australia and can be private, robust and effective.”