--- title: "The hidden cost of social media age bans is everyone’s privacy" url: https://daily.dev/posts/the-hidden-cost-of-social-media-age-bans-is-everyone-s-privacy-3ci5rdqoy source_url: https://techcentral.co.za/the-hidden-cost-of-social-media-age-bans-is-everyones-privacy/282021 type: article source: "TechCentral" published: 2026-05-29T09:00:38.512Z updated: 2026-05-29T09:01:06.821Z tags: ["privacy", "social-media"] reading_time: 5 upvotes: 0 comments: 0 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # The hidden cost of social media age bans is everyone’s privacy **[TechCentral](https://daily.dev/sources/techcentral)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Australia's Social Media Minimum Age Act of 2024, which restricts under-16s from social media, is prompting similar discussions globally including in South Africa. A conference paper argues the law raises serious proportionality concerns: effective age verification requires identity checks (government IDs, facial scans, biometrics) that erode online anonymity for all users, not just minors. Even privacy-preserving cryptographic systems leave unresolved institutional questions about credential issuance and potential scope creep. Evidence that age-gating reduces harm is uncertain, as young users routinely circumvent restrictions. The piece advocates for less intrusive alternatives like parental controls, digital literacy education, and targeted interventions, warning that rigorous enforcement could shift the internet from an open to a permissioned, identity-linked system resembling the heavily monitored internets of authoritarian states. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Age-Verification And The World Before Social Media](https://daily.dev/posts/age-verification-and-the-world-before-social-media-jzddrf04m) · Hackaday · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [UK to require ID or face scan before you can make social media accounts](https://daily.dev/posts/uk-to-require-id-or-face-scan-before-you-can-make-social-media-accounts-0mhbuf8lk) · BleepingComputer · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Age Verification: Protection Tool or Surveillance in Disguise?](https://daily.dev/posts/age-verification-protection-tool-or-surveillance-in-disguise--btat0kcty) · It's Foss · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#social-media](https://daily.dev/tags/social-media) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/the-hidden-cost-of-social-media-age-bans-is-everyone-s-privacy-3ci5rdqoy)