Australia to toughen under-16 social media ban after evidence it is failing

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Australian government will move to strengthen its world-first ban on social media for children under 16, after a series of studies found that most affected young people have simply continued using the platforms since the law took effect. The admission that the landmark policy has fallen short of its goals comes barely six months after it was implemented and is being watched closely by other governments considering similar restrictions.

Why it matters

Australia's ban was the first national experiment of its kind, watched closely by governments from the United Kingdom to the European Union that are weighing similar age limits, which makes the early evidence of its failure consequential well beyond Australia. The core problem the data exposes is not political will but enforcement: if facial-recognition and age-verification systems can be defeated by a printed mask or a parent's phone, then the premise that platforms can reliably screen out children is in doubt — and with it the entire regulatory model. Albanese's vow to toughen the law rather than abandon it sets up a defining test of whether a determined government can make age-gating work, or whether the bypasses will always stay a step ahead, a question every country drafting its own version is now watching answer in real time.

The Online Safety Amendment, which set a minimum age of 16 for holding accounts on major social media platforms, came into force on December 10, 2025, making Australia the first country to attempt a blanket ban of its kind. It applies to services including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, and places the onus on the platforms to take reasonable steps to keep underage users off.

The evidence that the ban is not working has accumulated steadily. Data released in March 2026 showed that roughly seven in 10 underage children had continued to hold accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok in the months since the law took effect. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that 85 percent of Australians aged 12 to 17 were still using restricted platforms.

A separate survey of 1,050 Australians aged 12 to 15 found that more than 60 percent of teenagers who had social media accounts before the ban still had access to at least one of those platforms afterward. Taken together, the findings suggest the law has changed how young people access social media far more than whether they access it at all.

The methods teenagers have used to evade the restrictions point to the technical weakness at the heart of the policy. Young users have logged in with their parents' Face ID, used printed mesh masks designed to defeat facial-recognition age-estimation tools, and relied on virtual private networks to disguise their location and bypass geographic blocks. Each workaround undercuts the age-verification systems the platforms were required to deploy.

Albanese framed the government's response as a strengthening of the law rather than a retreat from it, signaling that ministers intend to close the loopholes and tighten enforcement obligations on the platforms rather than concede that the approach cannot work. The eSafety Commissioner, the regulator charged with overseeing the regime, has continued to issue guidance to industry on how the rules are meant to be applied.

The stakes extend beyond Australia. The United Kingdom and the European Union, among others, have floated age-based limits on social media use, and Australia's experience has become a real-world test of whether such bans can be enforced at scale. The early returns — high rates of continued use and readily available workarounds — have handed both supporters and critics of the idea fresh ammunition as the debate moves to other capitals.

Australia to toughen under-16 social media ban after evidence it is failing

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