The eSafety commissioner is not expected to block children from accessing 4chan as part of the under-16s social media ban, despite it being labelled one of the “darker” places on the internet.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was asked by independent senator Fatima Payman in Senate estimates on Wednesday night whether 4chan, the message board often referred to as the engine room of the internet, would be considered one of the sites required to prevent under-16s when the social media ban comes into effect from 10 December.
It came after 4chan’s lawyer reportedly stated the website would not be paying a proposed fine for failing to comply with the UK’s online safety laws.
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Inman Grant said, “No, it’s really an image board”, when asked whether 4chan would be included in the ban. Officials later clarified that eSafety has not undertaken a formal assessment of 4chan, but said there was a “risk-based approach” taken in assessing which platforms the ban would apply to, focusing on those with a significant presence in Australia, and a significant number of young users and key features that fit the definition in the legislation.
Inman Grant did not rule out that 4chan may be considered in the future.
Payman noted 4chan doesn’t require people to register accounts to post, making it harder to enforce account bans.
Inman Grant indicated 4chan would be required to comply with other codes due to come into effect at the end of this year and early next year, which will also include age assurance for sites hosting violent and adult content.
“They would be considered as part of our designated internet services. So they will have obligations under those codes, and those would be the powers that we would use if it were necessary, and they cover, they carry the same ultimate fine of $49.5m.”
Inman Grant said the focus of the under-16s ban was “mainstream” social media sites “that a lot of children were using and spending a lot of time and being exposed to addictive design features like opaque algorithms and endless scroll”.
“I would consider 4chan one of the darker sites on the web. These are things that we do deal with through both our phase-one and now soon our phase-two codes, but also through our illegal and restricted content scheme, because that’s where a lot of terrible content sits.”
Last month Inman Grant sent letters to 16 services to ask them to conduct a self-assessment on whether they believe the under-16s ban should apply to them, after which Inman Grant will state if she agrees ahead of the 10 December implementation date.
Inman Grant revealed on Wednesday she had advised the federal government that it is her view the ban should apply to YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X and Snapchat. She said some of the platforms had replied agreeing with her view, while some are likely to take an “alternative view”.
Officials revealed YouTube has conveyed to eSafety that it doesn’t believe it should be covered by the ban, but the company hasn’t indicated yet whether it will or will not comply with the social media ban.
