MELBOURNE, Australia — The communications minister of Australia announced on Wednesday that the government will not require social media users to provide personal data to technology firms, even as it plans to implement a ban on children under the age of 16 from using these platforms.

Michelle Rowland is set to introduce groundbreaking legislation in Parliament on Thursday that would hold platforms such as X, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram accountable for ensuring that Australian users under 16 are restricted from accessing their services. Once the bill is enacted, these social media companies will have a year to establish systems for enforcing this age limit, after which they could face penalties of up to 50 million Australian dollars (approximately $33 million) for repeated infractions.

Currently, there are no clear guidelines on how these platforms will verify the ages of their users.

During her address to Parliament, Rowland emphasized that the legislation will include strong privacy protections for social media users. “This is not about the government mandating any forms of technology or requiring any personal information to be disclosed to social media companies,” she stated.

Last week, the government disclosed that it has teamed up with a consortium led by the British firm Age Check Certification Scheme to investigate technologies that can estimate and verify users’ ages. In addition to excluding under-16s from social media, the government is also exploring measures to prevent minors under 18 from accessing online pornography, according to an official statement.

Tony Allen, the chief executive of Age Check Certification Scheme, shared on Monday that the technologies under consideration include methods for age estimation and age inference. The latter involves compiling various facts about individuals that suggest they meet a specific age threshold.

“None of these approaches is 100% accurate,” Allen noted in an interview with Australian Broadcasting Corporation. His organization is expected to provide a report to the Australian government by the end of June of next year.

Allen expressed that if people are aware of potential risks and checks are conducted appropriately, most individuals will be comfortable with it. “We don’t want our children exposed to extreme violent video games, pornography, or harmful material that could negatively affect their mental development, such as body image issues or unhealthy weight concerns,” he insisted.

He also mentioned that the public is generally less supportive of stringent identification checks for general internet access and online activities. Meanwhile, the Digital Industry Group Inc., which advocates for Australia’s digital sector, criticized the age restriction, calling it a “20th century solution to 21st century problems.”