Australia plans to force parental consent for minors on social media


FILE PHOTO: The logos of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google in a combination photo

SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia unveiled plans on Monday to make social media companies obtain parental consent for users under the age of 16, with multimillion dollar fines for failing to comply.

Draft legislation to enhance online privacy protections would require companies such as Facebook, anonymous forum Reddit, smartphone dating app Bumble and Facebook-owned messager Whatsapp to take all reasonable steps to determine users' ages and prioritise children's interests when collecting data.

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