YouTube, which is set to be exempted from the upcoming ban, is the only service that allows under-13 usage when attached to a family account with parental supervision. Still, none of the eight to 12-year olds who had accounts reported shutdowns due to being underage.
95 per cent of teens under 16 used at least one of the eight services surveyed, the report said.
While TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat and YouTube used tools to proactively detect users under 13, others did not, despite having the technology available, the report said.
“Since the start of 2023, our … proactive age detection tools, have resulted in the removal of more than one million Australian users suspected of being under the age of 13,” a TikTok spokesperson said.
A spokesperson for Meta, owner of Facebook and Instagram, said the company supported age-appropriate experiences for children online, but it should be the responsibility of app stores to enforce age restrictions.
Reddit declined to comment, while Twitch, Snapchat and YouTube did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
A vast majority of services had undertaken research to improve their age assurance setups, while some had easy pathways for users to report someone being under 13, the report added.
