Australia to Enforce Under-16 Social Media Ban on Wednesday

Overview

• The law takes effect on December 10 and covers major services including Instagram, Facebook, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, X, Reddit, Kick and Twitch.
• Companies must remove existing underage accounts, block new sign-ups, use multiple age-verification methods beyond self-declaration, and counter forged IDs, AI deepfakes and VPN workarounds.
• Carve-outs exclude YouTube Kids, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, Roblox and Discord, and minors can still view content without accounts, driving a shift toward smaller apps such as Coverstar, Yope and Lemon8.
• Serious or repeated breaches can draw penalties up to A$49.5 million, and the government says verification records must be deleted after each check.
• A High Court challenge by the Digital Freedom Project argues the law restricts young people's political communication, as tech firms press for app-store-based checks and Meta begins removing underage accounts.