Roblox, Discord, Reddit and dating giant Match group urged by eSafety Commissioner to self-assess ahead of under-16 age ban

Popular gaming sites Roblox, and Lego Play, plus messaging site Discord and dating giant Match Group could be captured in the under 16s social media ban. eSafety Commission Julie Inman Grant has written to 16 platforms encouraging them to self-assess to determine whether they will be captured by the ban to come into effect from December 10. This comes as Anthony Albanese is expected to address the United Nations General Assembly overnight Wednesday in New York, where he will spruik Australia’s world-first restrictions. Ms Inman Grant has also travelled to Silicon Valley and San Francisco where she has arranged meetings with Snapchat, Anthropic, Open AI, Discord, Character AI, Apple, Meta and Google, and will attend the Trust and Safety Conference at Stanford University. The initial list included Meta (parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), Snap, Tiktok, YouTube, X, Pinterest, Discord, Roblox, Lego Play, Match Group (global dating giant which owns Hinge, Tinder and OKCupid), Twitch, Steam, Kick, GitHub and HubApp. A spokesman for eSafety said while the regulator does not have the powers to formally declare whether a service meets the criteria of an age-restricted social media platform, it has been tasked with enforcement of the ban, with companies that repeatedly flout the rules subject to fines of up to $49.5m. However he said that based on the conditions in the Online Safety Act, “Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube meet many of the conditions” used to define an age-restricted social media platform. “Any platform eSafety believes to be age-restricted will be expected to comply and eSafety will make this clear to the relevant platforms in due course,” he said. The commissioner is also set to publish information on which platforms have successfully obtained an exemption ahead of December 10. “Any platform eSafety believes to be age-restricted will be expected to comply and eSafety will make this clear to the relevant platforms in due course,” the spokesman said. “eSafety will also provide information to the public about platform self-assessments and its own view in the lead up to December 10. “The information will not be a safety assessment or a formal declaration but will provide an important indication for parents and the community as to which platforms will be expected to apply age restrictions.” Under the imminent ban, social media giants will be liable to removing, identifying stopping underage accounts from appearing on their platforms. While Ms Inman Grant has said she doesn’t expect platforms to instantly banish under-16 accounts from December 10 immediately, compliance measures will initially focus on services with the highest user counts.