Australia Enforces Nationwide Social Media Ban for Users Under 16
Australia’s attempt to redraw the boundaries of adolescence in the digital age took effect this week, as a sweeping new law barred anyone under 16 from using major social media platforms. Overnight, millions of young Australians found themselves locked out of the online spaces that have functioned as their group chats, hangouts, diaries, and after-school social arenas.
The move, described internationally as a first-of-its-kind experiment, is forcing companies such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Reddit, Facebook, Threads, Twitch, Kick and X to begin stripping underage accounts and blocking new ones. Failure to do so could cost platforms up to $49.5m, a figure that has captured the attention of tech firms worldwide.
Even before the official start date, confusion rippled through the rollout. Age-verification systems, most of which use some form of facial analysis, have already shown holes. Some children managed to pass as adults, prompting the federal government to reiterate that no one expects “perfection on day one.”
Still, regulators maintain that the law’s intent must be met. Platforms must demonstrate they are taking “reasonable” steps to keep kids under 16 out.
Every major company except X told regulators by Tuesday that they would comply, though they initially resisted. Snapchat released a statement acknowledging the new law in late November.
“Disconnecting teens from their friends and family doesn’t make them safer — it may push them to less safe, less private messaging apps. We continue to advocate for more privacy-conscious solutions, such as mandating age verification at the device, operating system, or app store level.
Australia’s eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said her office had recently spoken with X about how it plans to comply. Still, the company has yet to explain its plan to its users. “I’ve always referred to this as the first domino, which is why they pushed back,” she said, referring to social media companies.
In a surprising twist, Bluesky, an emerging competitor to X, announced it would mirror the ban even though eSafety had classified it as “low risk,” due to its comparatively tiny 50,000-person Australian user base.
For children, the weeks leading up to the ban have been a scramble of contingency planning. Many rushed to complete age checks, swap private phone numbers, or brace themselves for account deletion. Kieran Donovan, co-founder and Australian CEO of the age-assurance provider k-ID, said his service has handled “hundreds of thousands” of checks recently. Among the companies relying on k-ID is Snapchat.
“With one law, we can protect Generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by predatory algorithms described by the man who created the feature as ‘behavioral cocaine,’” Communications Minister Anika Wells told the National Press Club.
Families, meanwhile, are deeply divided. One mother said her 15-year-old is “very distressed” after discovering that “all her 14 to 15-year-old friends have been age verified as 18 by Snapchat,” while she alone was tagged as underage. The teen worries that “her friends will keep using Snapchat to talk and organize social events, and she will be left out.”
Some parents have headed in the opposite direction by actively circumventing the law. One father said the ban forced him into an uncomfortable role.
“I’ve shown her how VPNs work and other methods on bypassing age restrictions. I’ve had to set her up with her own adult YouTube account and have assisted her in bypassing TikTok’s age-estimation and will keep doing so each time it asks.”
Others argue the crackdown is overdue. One parent described their daughter as “completely addicted” to social media and said the new rules “provide us with a support framework to keep her off these platforms.”
Two teenagers are suing the Australian government over the ban. One of them, Noah, 15, argues that the ban will rob teenagers of an important educational medium.
“Do you want 15-year-old boys to have no clue about consent? Do you want teenagers who don’t know about the dangers of vaping? Both topics I’ve learned about on social media.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stepped in to defend the sweeping changes over the weekend.
“From the beginning, we’ve acknowledged this process won’t be 100% perfect, but the message this law sends will be 100% clear. Australia sets the legal drinking age at 18 because our society recognizes the benefits to the individual and the community of such an approach. The fact that teenagers occasionally find a way to have a drink doesn’t diminish the value of having a clear, national standard.”
Polls repeatedly show around two-thirds of voters back the 16-plus rule, but political unity has begun to wobble. Opposition figures, including deputy leader Sussan Ley, have recently expressed unease, despite previously allowing the legislation to pass through parliament.
Other countries are watching closely. Malaysia, Denmark, and Norway have all indicated they are preparing similar laws, and the European Union recently passed a resolution supporting comparable restrictions. A spokesperson for the UK government told Reuters it was “closely monitoring Australia’s approach to age restrictions.”
Now that the ban is active, scrutiny of how platforms enforce it will intensify. Inman Grant said that starting Thursday, her office will issue notices requesting detailed updates, including “how many accounts [they’ve] deactivated or removed, what challenges they’re finding, how they’re preventing recidivism and preventing circumvention, whether or not their abuse or reporting abuse and the appeals processes are working as planned.” Albanese has committed to making the resulting data public.
If regulators decide a platform isn’t doing enough, they can take it to court to seek fines. Alongside enforcement, an academic advisory group will undertake an independent, multi-year review to examine the impacts of the ban across childhood development, mental health, and education.
“It will look at the benefits over time, but also the unintended consequences. Everything from are sleeping? Are they interacting, or are they actually getting out on the sports fields? Are they reading books? Are they taking less medication, like antidepressants? Are their NAPLAN scores improving over time?”
At the same time, the office will monitor whether children begin drifting toward “darker areas of the internet,” turning to VPN workarounds, or migrating to lesser-known platforms with minimal oversight.
Such migration is already happening. Ahead of the cutoff, some teens on Snapchat publicly posted their mobile numbers in their bios to keep social circles intact after their accounts disappeared, something Snapchat strongly warned against.
A spokesperson said the company appreciated that under-16s were disappointed but “would strongly encourage any teens using Snapchat not to publicly share their personal contact information.”
The regulatory net may widen again soon. Inman Grant confirmed that she has issued notices to 15 additional companies not originally covered, asking them to assess whether they should now fall within the scope of the ban. Among them are Yope and Lemon8, apps that suddenly climbed the download charts as teens searched for new digital refuges
Moumita Basuroychowdhury is a Contributing Reporter at The National Digest. After earning an economics degree at Cornell University, she moved to NYC to pursue her MFA in creative writing. She enjoys reporting on science, business and culture news. You can reach her at moumita.b@thenationaldigest.com.
