WIPPA: An important one though, guys, as we head towards the date of 10th December, an important one for a change in social media laws. The Communications Minister, the Honourable Anika Wells, welcome to the show.

MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS ANIKA WELLS: Hello.

WIPPA: Today’s important, Anika Wells, because we are 36 days away from when the law changes here in Australia to make a better place for our teenage kids online.

WELLS: That’s right, Wippa. Your original premise about simply giving kids 36 more months to build online resilience, I remind myself of that constantly as we get into the weeds of this, the weeds of delivery ahead of 10 December. But that’s what it’s about, giving kids more time, the gift of time, 36 months back to build some resilience and to get to know who they are before the platforms assume who they are.

WIPPA: Yeah. Do you know, Anika, it’s interesting, and there’s a lot of questions around this topic, of course, and as we’ve always said, there is no silver bullet and there’s going to be questions and we’re going to feel our way through it. But at the same time, it’s so important to start somewhere. And having done the research that you’ve done, the damage that it has caused teenage kids and the wellness that we need to work on, it’s just important to reinforce how much of a relief this will be for so many parents.

WELLS: Yeah, we really do want parents and carers to know that we have your back and, you know, we can all accept this isn't a cure, this is a treatment plan. Kids are going to be kids, they're going to try and get around this, it won't be perfect, but it is going to make a meaningful difference and that's really important. Like you say, it's the first step. It will make a huge cultural change in this country. And I think someone very wise who I saw on the floor of the UN said, this will not just change a law, it will change a generation.

WIPPA: Yeah, very wise words.

FITZY: Do you know what? Like we say, Anika, as a parent, for me to say to my 12-year-old, Lenny, if he wants to get on Snapchat or something, it's something as simple as, mate, unfortunately, it's now against the law. And you know what, kids do listen to that. I mean, if you can parent right, you can get your child and you can understand, look, unfortunately, now you've got to wait until you're 16. He understood that straight away. When it's against the law, the kids know that I'm not going to go down that road.

WELLS: Absolutely right. And look, there are going to be young people that get access to alcohol this afternoon, even though you're not supposed to drink until you're 18. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't have laws to stop people selling alcohol to under 18s. And like you said, the majority of kids understand that it's against the law and the majority of kids want to follow the law.

WIPPA: Can I ask, because there's a lot of questions and I think one of the biggest comments I've seen over and over again, Anika, are people saying this is just the government's idea of grabbing more data and detail from Australians and a digital ID will be required. Can you confirm for everybody today that is not the case?

WELLS: It is absolutely not the case. It is, you’re right, a scare campaign being trumpeted from parts of the internet, but it is not true. Let me assure parents of that. It is enshrined in the Australian law that Parliament passed in a bipartisan manner at the end of last year that you will not be required to upload your digital ID. Platforms must offer you an alternate to that.

WIPPA: Right. So, when December 10 comes, if I'm underage, I'm a 13-year-old and I'm on Snapchat, on that day and moving forward from that date, we're expecting Snapchat to understand the rules that now apply in Australia?

WELLS: That's right. And Snapchat just last week in a parliamentary inquiry confirmed that they intend to comply with the law. They might not like the law, and that's their right, but they intend to comply with the law as they operate in Australia. So, what that should mean for your 15-year-old in the run-up to 10 December, if they have a Snapchat account, is that they're getting warnings from Snapchat that their account has been identified as one, belonging to an under 16-year-old, and come 10 December, they're going to need to deactivate it, as in Snapchat is going to need to deactivate it, in order for Snapchat to comply with the Australian law.

WIPPA: Right, so Snapchat has the technology to be able to identify based on facial recognition, is this correct, and also the interests? Is that right, Anika?

WELLS: So, there's three different streams of age assurance. We did a trial into age assurance earlier in the year. There's a 1300-page report back that you and parents don't need to worry about that platforms can use to inform themselves about different ways that they can work out how old you are.

And I think we should also say for your listeners, if you are someone who uses Facebook and you've had a Facebook account since 2015 and you pretty much just use it for Marketplace these days to look for caravans, Facebook knows that you are over 16 and you shouldn't be required to do anything to demonstrate your identity because Facebook has enough data about you from what you've given Facebook yourself to know your age. So that's called inference based on the information that you're giving them.

FITZY: Yes, 100 per cent.

WIPPA: 36 days until the law kicks in. December 10 is the countdown. Anika Wells, thank you so much for joining us. We'll talk again, no doubt, before the date.

WELLS: Looking forward to it. Have a good morning.