Australia kicks teens off social apps. The global policy test begins

Australia on Wednesday became the first country to officially ban users under the age of 16 from accessing major social media platforms; This move is expected to be closely watched by global technology companies and policymakers around the world.

Canberra’s ban, which comes into effect at midnight local time, targets 10 main services: Alphabetis YouTube, Meta’On Instagram, ByteDance’s TikTok, reddit, on Snapchat and Elon Musk’s X.

Controversial rule requires these platforms to take “reasonable steps” to prevent underage access using age–verification methods such as inference from online activity, face prediction through selfies, uploaded IDs or linked bank details.

All targeted platforms had agreed to comply with the policy to some degree. Elon Musk’s X was one of the last holdouts, but on Wednesday he signaled he would comply.

The policy means millions of Australian children are expected to lose access to their social accounts.

However, the policy’s impact could be even wider, as it will set a benchmark for other governments considering social media bans on young people, including Denmark, Norway, France, Spain, Malaysia and New Zealand.

Before the law was passed last year, YouGov poll It found 77% of Australians support a social media ban on under-16s. Still, its rollout has met with some resistance since it became law.

Supporters of the bill argued that it protects children from social media-related harms, including cyberbullying, mental health issues, exposure to predators and pornography.

Among those welcoming the official ban on Wednesday was Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and author of the 2024 bestseller The Anxious Generation, who linked the growing mental health crisis to smartphone and social media use, especially for young people.

Haidt in a post on social media platform X Commendable policy makers In Australia to “save children under 16 from the social media trap”.

“There will certainly be difficulties in the first months, but the world supports your success and many other countries will follow,” he added.

Opponents, on the other hand, argue that the ban violates freedoms of expression and access to information, raises privacy concerns through intrusive age verification, and represents excessive government intervention that undermines parental responsibility.

These critics include groups such as Amnesty Tech. expression He said Tuesday that the ban is an ineffective solution that ignores the rights and realities of younger generations.

“The most effective way to protect children and young people online is to protect all social media users through better regulation, stronger data protection laws and better platform design,” said Damini Satija, Director of Amnesty International’s Technology Programme.

Meanwhile, David Inserra, who studies free speech and technology at the Cato Institute, warned in a blog post that children could evade the new policy by switching to new platforms, dedicated apps like Telegram, or VPNs, directing them to “more isolated communities and platforms with fewer protections” where it is harder to monitor them.

Technology companies like Google I also warned While reports prepared by the government point to age-related inaccuracies, he said the policy could be extremely difficult to implement.–selfie-based age verification technology–forecasting software

As a matter of fact, on Wednesday local reports In Australia, it was noted that many children had already bypassed the ban because age assurance tools were misclassifying users and workarounds such as VPNs were effective.

However, in an opinion piece he wrote on Sunday, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged that the system will not work perfectly from the beginning and attempted to prevent these problems by likening it to liquor laws.

“The fact that young people find a way to drink occasionally does not diminish the value of having a clear national standard,” he added.

The rollout is expected to continue to face challenges and regulators should adopt a trial-and-error approach, experts told CNBC.

“There’s quite a bit of teething around it. A lot of young people are sharing that they’ve successfully bypassed the age restriction on TikTok, and that’s to be expected,” Australian media and communications expert and professor Terry Flew said.

“You can never have everyone under the age of 16 disappear 100% of the time on day one from every single designated platform,” he added.