Concerns Rise as Snapchat Faces New Under-16 Social Media Ban
So, Australia’s new social media ban for kids under 16 is finally taking effect, and Snapchat has suddenly found itself right at the center of the debate. The whole idea behind the ban is to create a safer online environment for young people, but as the rollout begins, a lot of questions are popping up—especially around privacy and how age verification is actually being handled.
Snapchat has partnered with a Singapore-based company called k-ID to verify users’ ages. On paper, the system sounds simple enough. Users get three options: they can verify their age through a bank-linked “yes/no” check using ConnectID, they can scan a government-issued ID, or they can just take a selfie and let the system estimate their age. According to k-ID, it’s all meant to be quick, easy, and private. They even say that nothing is stored—images are deleted immediately, and only an “age signal” is kept if the user chooses to save it for next time.
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But cybersecurity experts aren’t fully convinced. The moment any data, even for a few seconds, leaves a device and goes to another service, there’s some level of exposure. Experts point out that if a selfie or ID scan must be sent to a remote server for verification, the data is still vulnerable while in transit, even if it’s wiped afterward. And even if everything works exactly as k-ID promises, people still have to trust that the app is behaving the way it claims to. A compromised or poorly built app could still upload data behind the scenes, and there’s no easy way for everyday users to verify that.
The facial age-estimation feature is getting its own round of skepticism. As some cybersecurity specialists note, if visual age estimation were truly reliable, society wouldn’t need ID checks for alcohol, cigarettes, or anything else with age restrictions. The technology might be improving, but experts argue it’s nowhere near accurate enough to rely on without something more solid behind it.
Even the bank verification method, which doesn’t involve images, has its own privacy considerations. While it does reduce the risk tied to transmitting photos, banks and ConnectID still receive metadata showing that a user is attempting to verify their age for a specific service. That may not be as sensitive as a selfie or ID scan, but it is still personal information moving between systems.
And beyond privacy, there’s another looming issue: scams. As soon as official age verification becomes mandatory, fake verification sites and phishing schemes are expected to pop up. Experts warn that children and parents could be caught off guard by look-alike pages or apps pretending to offer verification, only to steal IDs or personal data.
So even though the government wants this ban to create a safer space for young people online, many specialists say it might end up pushing kids into darker corners of the internet or exposing them to new kinds of risks. With the ban kicking in, the big question now is whether all these verification systems can deliver the safety they promise—or whether they will create a whole new set of challenges.
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