Social media giants have flagged privacy risks as Australia’s under-16 ban on social media approaches.

The Albanese government’s controversial social media ban for children under 16, set to start on December 10, has prompted platforms to consider how age verification could be implemented. At a parliamentary committee on Tuesday, executives were asked about the potential privacy risks of requiring government-issued identification.

TikTok Public Policy Lead for Content and Safety Ella Woods-Joyce acknowledged that ID-based verification could be part of the age assurance process.

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“With respect to taking IDs, of course, that is one option among many options that our users might have to assure their age,” Woods-Joyce said. “When we use an ID verification, we are actually relying on a trusted third-party provider. They will send a signal back to us as to whether the user is old enough. They are privacy-preserving and we're doing our very best to make sure that we're not collecting more information than we need.”

Facebook Director of Policy Mia Garlick also confirmed that government IDs “may be used” in age verification.

“We do use a third-party provider, YoTi, where people are given the option either of video selfie, which is an age estimation approach, or providing government IDs,” Garlick said. “We don't store any of that as part of our processes, that's all maintained by YoTi. There are some instances where we do ask for ID if we think an account is fake. And in those instances we only store the data for 30 days, it's encrypted in transit and stored in separately. We're very alive to the privacy and security risks and trying to make sure that we're adopting the least intrusive approach ... ID is a very small part of our age assurance process.”

Snap Inc warned of the dangers of collecting sensitive information under tight deadlines.

“This is an incredibly complicated situation and Australia is a first mover in this space,” Jennifer Park Stout, Global Policy & Platform Operations, told the committee. “Age assurance has a number of privacy risks. It naturally requires the collection of incredibly personal information. And as was seen by the Discord breach, it is so alarming when users have their private data leaked into the public.”

The warning follows a high-profile hack where a third-party provider handling Discord’s age verification appeals had official ID photos of roughly 70,000 users stolen.

Communications Minister Anika Wells has said platforms will not be required to collect government-issued digital IDs, even as legislation could fine tech companies up to $50 million for failing to block under-16s.