Has Australia’s social media ban for under-16s been a success? Here are the results.
Wyatt Thompson was locked out of YouTube when Australia’s under-16 social media ban came into effect on December 10, but the 11-year-old from Broken Hill was not forced offline.
“It hasn’t helped me to stop using my electronics… I still use them the same amount, but now I just go to Netflix or listen to something on Spotify,” says Wyatt.
The YouTube account was one of 4.7 million accounts disabled by eight tech giants during the Albanian government-mandated purge a month ago; Australia has become the first country to ban children under 16 from keeping or creating accounts on the 10-year-old platform.
The government’s social media watchdog eSafety refused to release a breakdown of the figures, and only Meta provided its own figures: 544,052 accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads that appeared to belong to under-16s were closed between December 4 and December 11.
The government estimates that by late 2024, 95 percent of youth under 16 and 84 percent of children aged eight to 12 will have accounts (about 2.3 million users), and logging into various social media sites will be common. Therefore, it is unknown how many underage users are blocked from access.
“ESafety is aware of reports that some accounts under the age of 16 remain active and encourages the public to report them directly to platforms An eSafety spokesperson said in a statement: “This will help improve the accuracy and effectiveness of age assurance tools.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “Change doesn’t happen overnight. But these early signs show it’s important we take action to make this change happen. We want our children to have a childhood and we want parents to know we have their backs.”
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has repeatedly emphasized that introducing age assurance measures will always be complex. On December 10, Inman Grant told Nine’s: Today Teething problems are expected in technology.
An eSafety spokesperson said last week that the app would “target systemic errors following a rigorous investigation.” It is expected that “isolated cases of youth creativity” will continue to evade the ban for some time.
“We know there is more work to be done and the eSafety Commissioner is looking closely at this data to determine what it shows in terms of compliance of individual platforms,” Communications Minister Anika Wells said in a statement released alongside senior figures.
“We’ve said from the beginning that we don’t expect immediate perfection, but the early numbers show this law is making a real, meaningful difference.”
Bella, a 15-year-old from regional Victoria, had already signed up to Facebook, Instagram and TikTok with a fake age and was awaiting release.
“I was going to wait and see what happened and see if I needed to make any workarounds. But… I never got fired,” he said.
Bella did not include her last name in this story out of concern that her accounts would be disabled. He communicates with his close friends via text message, but some of his extended circle have deactivated social media accounts. They don’t have phone numbers, so they lost contact.
Elliott, a 14-year-old from Sydney, was kicked off Snapchat on December 10. The platform claims that most of its friends under the age of 16 are not asked to verify their age. They still had access to it and any group chats it was started from.
“It’s harder to make plans to go out with other friends whose numbers you don’t know,” Elliott said. But he started spending more time outside, fishing and hanging out with close friends whose phone numbers he knew.
He claims he was able to sign up for Snapchat again a month later with a new email address.
Platforms included in Australia’s under-16 social media ban
- Meta: Facebook, Instagram, Topics
- Google: YouTube
- Kick in
- on Snapchat
- tiktok
- Twitch
- X (formerly Twitter)
In early December, Melbourne mother Michelle Stamper was routinely checking her 13-year-old’s text messages when she discovered “activity”: teenagers were sending each other their phone numbers for the first time.
But as it turned out, Stamper’s daughter and her friends didn’t need to exchange numbers. Many have fooled Snapchat’s facial age estimation scans, a notoriously inaccurate age assurance method, and can still use the popular platform.
Stamper was upset that she had to report her daughter’s account, which was still live, to Snapchat; Snapchat disabled the account weeks after being contacted by this masthead. (Stamper says her daughter was back on the platform within 24 hours.)
“I’m angry,” he says. “I was counting on the government to clean it up for the kids.”
If you or someone you know needs support, call Lifeline On 13 11 14, Beyond Blue At 1800 512 348, Child Helpline 1800 55 In 1800.
Start your day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Beginning the featuring a roundup of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
Bronte Gossling is a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAtoday and Brisbane Times.Connect via email.
