Just five days out from the biggest change to Social Media since it became part of our lives, and finally TikTok has confirmed their intention to meet the obligations of the law by kicking off Aussie kids under 16 from their platform.
While Meta came out of the gates early, and Snapchat followed suit, TikTok has been broadly silent publicly about what’s to come for Aussie teens.
TikTok say that “From 10 December, Australians between the ages of 13 and 15 will no longer be able to have, or create, an account on TikTok. Teens with an existing account will be notified that they will no longer be able to use their existing account, which will become inactive. If they previously published content, it will no longer be available for others to view on TikTok.”
Any teen caught up in the ban will have the option to either download their information from TikTok to save those memories, delete their account, be reminded when they turn 16 to use their account again (only works if you do NOT choose the Delete account option), or – to Appeal, and confirm they are over 16.
TikTok say they will use three methods for an appeal. A government ID, from what we can read at TikTok’s support page, this appears to be a manual process where ID is uploaded, checked by someone and then the ID photo and data is deleted.
Secondly, use a Credit Card for authorisation – though, again, on TikTok’s support pages this method is only available to over 18’s, leaving 16 and 17 year olds to use Facial Age Estimation (provided by third party Yoti) to verify their age.
Facial Age estimation is done in real-time and does not rely on photos being uploaded, similar to how what we’ve seen Snapchat introduce work, though with limited success thus far.
TIkTok is encouraging parents to have conversations with their kids, to “make sure they have been truthful about their age. If an Australian parent believes their teen may have provided an incorrect date of birth, they can report this in-app and online.”
That’s right, TikTok has a dob in your kid form 🙂
Next week will be a hectic one for young teens, and parents alike.
Trev is a Technology Commentator, Dad, Speaker and Rev Head.
He produces and hosts several popular podcasts, EFTM, Two Blokes Talking Tech, Two Blokes Talking Electric Cars, The Best Movies You’ve Never Seen, and the Private Feed. He is the resident tech expert for Triple M on radio across Australia, and is the resident Tech Expert on Channel 9’s Today Show and appears regularly on 9 News, A Current Affair and Sky News Early Edition.
Father of three, he is often found in his Man Cave.
