How Is Australia’s Under 16 Social Media Ban Working?

I think that Australia’s social media ban is not working.

What is Australia’s Social Media Ban? Australia’s social media ban impacts platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Youtube, and Snapchat. In December 2025, Australia officially launched this new law, fining around 25 million pounds to the social media company if too many children use the restricted apps.

According to undefinedAustralia has not had any social media bans before. However, the government reported that in November 2024, Australia passed a social media restrictions law, called the “Social Media Minimum Age Bill.“ Because nobody really abided by the law, Australia had to pass it again in Dec. 10, 2025.

Australia’s social media ban is failing because lots of teenagers still have access to the social media. For example, according to undefinedundefined, about 61% of people in the age of 12-15 still have access to the social media platforms. This shows that Australia’s new law is not working.

One main reason that Australia’s law is falling apart is because they don’t have good security. According to the Australian government, facial recognition technology used by artificial intelligence apps to determine age is not useful for teenagers. In other words, Australian social media companies are not using any useful technology to enforce this law.

Some people may say that this ban is working really well because nobody has been fined, so that means everyone is following the rule. Yet, to prove this wrong, according to The Guardianundefined, about 7 in 10 people in Australia still can use social media, and some people only deleted certain apps as a result of the ban. The reason this happens is because it is easy for kids to bypass age restrictions and tests.

Australia’s social media needs to fix their security because lots of people can easily pass age tests and rules.