Overview
- France’s Constitutional Council struck down the country’s under‑15 social media ban on Aug. 14, saying its verification scheme would require everyone to prove their age and breach privacy and free‑expression rights.
- Australia’s under‑16 law, in force since December 2025, remains active but eSafety’s early studies show only modest drops in account ownership and have prompted investigations and proposed tougher enforcement powers.
- Canada’s Bill C‑34, introduced in June, would block under‑16s from social platforms but leaves technical age‑verification rules to a regulator and is widely expected to face near‑certain Charter litigation.
- Governments and platforms are debating specific age checks — facial age estimation, government or bank IDs, app‑store gating and other methods — all of which raise privacy risks, technical limits and easy circumvention like VPNs or shared accounts.
- Tech companies are pushing enforcement onto intermediaries such as app stores, regulators are seeking clearer powers, and the likely legal battles and workarounds could push teens to less‑regulated services and complicate parental oversight.