Ought to verified identities change into the usual on-line? Australia’s social media ban for under-16s reveals why the query issues.
14 Jan 2026
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5 min. learn
New laws in Australia makes it unlawful for these below 16 to have a social media account. To keep away from monetary penalties, social media firms have scrambled to take away accounts they imagine breach the laws. Notably, there are not any penalties for the under-16s who try to create an account utilizing a fraudulent age. As the primary nation to introduce such a ban, Australia has change into a little bit of a check case: the world is watching to see how efficient the laws is and whether or not it produces the specified outcomes.
As 2026 has simply begun, this additionally sparks a broader query for web customers and regulators alike: will this be the yr the world rethinks identification on-line?
The established order doesn’t work – what’s going to?
Whereas Australia’s new age guidelines are rooted in issues over the well-documented dangers kids face on social media platforms, the necessity to change the expertise of social media might be not finest served by banning it solely. The underlying points stay. As soon as somebody turns 16, is it all of a sudden acceptable to topic them to the problems they’ve been shielded from? Certainly all folks must be shielded from dangerous content material, abuse and different destructive expertise. Historical past additionally means that banning one thing causes larger demand. I keep in mind from my very own youth when radio stations banned the likes of “Calm down” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood – the ban simply made everybody hearken to it extra and helped hold the monitor at primary within the charts for longer. Denial fuels demand, and on this occasion it might exacerbate the problem of on-line risks as these below 16 in Australia search for alternate options.
In the meantime, age-verification laws in varied different international locations and in some U.S. states can be making an attempt to restrict entry to grownup content material, bringing about quite a few age-verification applied sciences on web sites that want to limit their content material. Some applied sciences supply real-time age dedication based mostly on facial options whereas others depend on extra formal methods, utilizing government-issued identification or monetary paperwork. All of those approaches can create further privateness issues, particularly round knowledge assortment and storage.
Add into this combine the likes of phishing emails, romance scams, monetary fraud and all the opposite varied ways in which cybercriminals and fraudsters try to dupe their victims, and it could elevate the query: is the best way that web companies and apps work right this moment nonetheless match for objective?
Additionally, think about being informed 30 years in the past that sooner or later a small machine in your pocket would will let you connect with just about anybody from anyplace, work together, store, make reservations, watch TV on demand. However alongside these cool options in your cellphone, there’s additionally the flexibility to bully others and be as abusive as you need with out accountability, and even stay nameless when doing so – or, certainly, be on the receiving finish of such conduct. When thought of on this method, you might need thought of not having one in every of these gadgets.
The abuser subsequent door
There could also be an assumption that abusive or undesirable conduct on the web comes from someplace else: it’s not your neighbor, not somebody you recognize, not even somebody out of your city – it’s most likely Russian bots or somebody from afar. Nevertheless, a latest BBC investigation discovered that in only one weekend there have been 2,000 extraordinarily abusive social media posts directed at managers and gamers within the Premier League and Girls’s Tremendous League, with some being so excessive as to contain threats of demise and rape. Figuring out the people behind the acute posts is unlikely as there isn’t any formal identification wanted when creating social media accounts, and utilizing a VPN makes monitoring tough.
Except an app or service is operated by a regulated firm that requires identification verification, individuals are free to create accounts on many companies utilizing any identification they need. This feature for anonymity has been a core idea of freedom on the web, though whether or not this was by design is questionable. The barrier for optimistic identification when creating an account is that companies might finally have fewer customers – it might introduce friction at account creation, one thing that firms counting on consumer numbers to ship advertisements and sponsored content material need to keep away from.
This results in a broader query: Is it time for a normal acceptance that the web must have verified, authenticated customers?
I’m not suggesting that each one companies must have verified customers. Nevertheless, if I might change off content material, posts and communication makes an attempt from non-verified customers, then my on-line expertise may enhance considerably. The soccer managers and gamers within the Premier League might be on social media with out being subjected to the torrent of trash and abuse they see right this moment, and if a verified consumer makes an excessive risk they are going to face the results of legislation enforcement. Extending this idea in order that under-16s might solely work together with content material from verified customers might not utterly resolve the problems of right this moment, however seemingly solutions the 80/20 rule of eradicating 80% of the problems.
The advantages aren’t restricted to social media. At current, my e mail inbox has the choice to separate normal mailing listing e mail from e mail messages that want motion. Introducing a 3rd filter for unverified senders would additionally assist winnow away attainable spear-phishing and focused assaults. There may be, after all, the chance of cybercriminals hijacking verified accounts, so this isn’t a silver bullet. It does, nevertheless, add one other layer of safety.
Verified doesn’t equate to seen
Crucially, identification verification doesn’t take away the choice of defending identification. For instance, a relationship platform might confirm the identification of all of the subscribers however nonetheless permit them to tackle any profile identification they select. The safety is available in figuring out that each member on the platform has been verified as an actual particular person and their identification is understood to the platform. Any abuse or fraud is then attributable to the person, permitting the suitable authorities to take motion.
Transferring to an web that distinguishes between verified and non-verified people could be an enormous reset of the established order. Claims about limitations of freedom of speech would comply with whereas firms counting on consumer numbers to show progress may even must reset their valuations. Nevertheless, the idea of verified identities doesn’t silence speech or limit freedom. What it does is give folks the choice to filter out the noise and abuse originating from the unverified.
One factor is for sure: the present strategies of limiting content material by age aren’t resolving the problem of undesirable, abusive or unlawful content material. And on the subject of these being prohibited from utilizing social media, the measures are more likely to push a few of them underground or drive them to bypass the restrictions, which is able to doubtlessly be extra harmful and improve threat, relatively than lowering it.
