Australia's under‑16 social media ban faces enforcement challenges
Australia's world‑first ban on users under 16 on certain social platforms, in effect since December 2025, is being reinforced with higher penalties and expanded watchdog powers, while children find ways to bypass it.
Australia has a world‑first ban preventing users under 16 from accessing certain social media platforms, in effect since December 2025. The government announced it will double the maximum penalty for platforms that breach the under‑16 ban to Aus$99 million.
The eSafety online safety watchdog will receive expanded powers to compel social media companies to provide evidence or documents related to the ban.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that too many children are still on social media despite the ban. Children are bypassing the under‑16 ban by using accounts registered to older people or other methods.
According to gdelt, the social media age restrictions were passed with bipartisan support in December. The opposition and the Greens blocked the bill that would double fines for the under‑16 social media ban. Prime Minister Albanese described the lack of support for strengthening the ban as “extraordinary”, gdelt reported.
This account was written only from facts that survived Augur's
corroboration pass — 5 corroborated across opposed news blocs,
0 contested (attributed to both sides), 3
single-source (attributed). Nothing was added; no significance was inferred.
Model Qwen3-Next-80B-A3B-Instruct.
See the evidence & the verbatim quotes →