Australia's government said it will probe the strength of its under-16 social media account ban after a recent study found the measure had produced little immediate reduction in teens' reported platform use. The policy - enacted six months ago and prohibiting platforms such as Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube from providing accounts to children under 16 - will be stress-tested to ensure it can survive legal scrutiny, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Speaking to the Australian Broadcasting Corp., Albanese said the aim is to make sure existing laws are durable against any legal challenges and to confirm the eSafety Commission, the country's internet safety regulator, has the authority needed to enforce the ban. He did not elaborate on specific next steps the government might take, and the eSafety Commission declined to comment.
The ban has attracted intense international attention as policymakers elsewhere watch how the experiment unfolds amid concerns about the health and welfare of young people. Britain this month announced its own planned restrictions that will extend to gaming and live-streaming services - a move that illustrates the global interest in regulatory approaches to youth online safety.
At home, the Communications Minister Anika Wells and the eSafety Commission have indicated preparations for legal action against multiple platforms, which could face a maximum penalty of A$49.5 million (about $34 million) if found to have systemically failed to uphold the ban. Reddit has initiated a challenge in the High Court and is engaged in preliminary hearings; Reddit did not immediately provide a comment on the matter.
When the ban took effect last December, initial reports suggested millions of accounts had been disabled. But follow-up accounts from parents and academic research point to a different practical outcome: adolescent social media usage appears largely unchanged.
A paper published this week in the British Medical Journal examined social media habits of 408 adolescents aged 12 to 15, three months after the ban's implementation. The study found that 85% of that group continued to use social media. Two-thirds of those underage users remained active on platforms by either falsely declaring an age over 16 or by submitting a selfie that the platform accepted as evidence of being older than 16.
The paper concluded that "despite the intent of the (ban) to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents." The research highlights the practical challenges of enforcing age restrictions when self-declaration and automated verification methods can be worked around.
The government has not publicly outlined further measures beyond the prime minister's comments, and the eSafety Commission's stance remains to prepare legal responses to platforms alleged to be noncompliant. The matter continues to evolve through both regulatory and judicial channels as Australia seeks to test and potentially strengthen the framework it enacted.
($1 = 1.4514 Australian dollars)