G7 backs privacy-preserving age assurance as Japan proposes social media access limits
G7 backs privacy-preserving age assurance as Japan proposes social media access limits
Publish Date: 2026-06-05 09:41:00
Source Domain: www.biometricupdate.com
Japan is considering new restrictions on minors’ access to social media while stopping short of blanket age bans.
While countries such as Australia, Indonesia and Malaysia have moved toward biometric-backed age-gating measures for social media access, Japan is pursuing a more flexible model.
The draft measures propose working with relevant parties such as telco operators to establish “methods of age verification based on feasible technologies and systems,” reports The Japan Times. Earlier, it was reported that Japan was considering age-based content filtering by default.
If the proposals are adopted, it could mean different age limits for different platforms and each platform implementing its own age verification methods. Currently, social media age verification is only based on self-reporting, making it easy to bypass.
Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said a broad age restriction would be difficult to implement as social media was too embedded as a communications tool in its society, with each platform having its unique functions. Support among both parents and under-25s in Japan for outright bans on social media for under-16s is relatively low, a report found.
The new proposals include asking platform operators to evaluate the risks of their services and publish the findings of the assessments. Another measure is implementing parental controls and having them turned on as the default setting for minors’ accounts. The draft emphasizes providing better support to improve the technology literacy of parents and teachers.
The proposals will accept public comment before they are finalized this summer. Other ministries will then suggest amendments, additions or counter arguments. It could be some time before they become law, but the communications ministry hopes to have finalized policy by the year’s end.
Meanwhile, the G7 group of developed countries, which includes Japan, have agreed to a landmark set of…
