*

80% of Australians aged 8-12 used social media in 2024,

eSafety

report finds

*

Australia approved a ban on under-16 usage in November

*

Platforms rely only on self-declaration of age at sign up,

report says

(Adds Meta comment in paragraph 12)

By Aaditya GovindRao

Feb 20 (Reuters) - Children in Australia are able to

easily bypass the minimum age limit imposed by social media

platforms, a report by the country's online safety regulator

showed on Thursday, ahead of a landmark ban by the government on

access for those under 16.

ESafety's report combined results from a national survey on

social media usage by eight to 15-year olds, along with

responses from eight services including Alphabet's

YouTube, Meta's Facebook and Amazon's ( AMZN ) Twitch.

In November, Australia approved a social media ban for

children under 16, setting a benchmark for jurisdictions around

the world. The ban is set to take effect at the end of 2025.

Social media companies largely do not allow those under 13

to access their platforms.

The watchdog's report found 80% of Australian children aged

eight to 12 used social media in 2024, with YouTube, ByteDance's

TikTok, Meta's Instagram and Snap's Snapchat being the

most popular services.

All services except Reddit ( RDDT ) required date of birth

at its sign-up stage, however they all relied only on

self-declaration with no other age assurance tools, the report

said.

"There is still significant work to be done by any social

media platforms relying on truthful self-declaration to

determine age with enforcement of the government's minimum age

legislation on the horizon," eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman

Grant said.

YouTube, which is set to be exempted from the upcoming ban,

is the only service that allows under-13 usage when attached to

a family account with parental supervision. Still, none of the

eight to 12-year olds who had accounts reported shutdowns due to

being underage.

Ninety five percent of teens under 16 used at least one of

the eight services surveyed, the report said.

While TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat and YouTube used tools to

proactively detect users under 13, others did not, despite

having the technology available, the report said.

"Since the start of 2023, our... proactive age detection

tools, have resulted in the removal of more than one million

Australian users suspected of being under the age of 13," a

TikTok spokesperson said.

A spokesperson for Meta, owner of Facebook and

Instagram, said the company supported age-appropriate

experiences for children online, but it should be the

responsibility of app stores to enforce age restrictions.

Reddit ( RDDT ) declined to comment, while Twitch, Snapchat and

YouTube did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

A vast majority of services had undertaken research to

improve their age assurance setups, while some had easy pathways

for users to report someone being under 13, the report added.