Australia is set to become the first country in the world where children under the age of 16 will be prohibited from using social media. Age restrictions have now led to a ban on several social media sites, including Instagram and Facebook, for these children.
According to data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) from June 2021, approximately 4.04 million people in Australia were under the age of 16. This group constitutes about 16% of the total population. Consequently, nearly 4 million social media accounts will now be banned.
Ban Effective from December 10
The ban will come into effect on December 10. With this, Australia will become the first country to impose a ban on social media use for teenagers. Platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, and Threads will be banned for people under 16.
Accounts to be Deactivated
Preparations to enforce this ban are accelerating. TikTok, Snapchat, and Meta (Facebook, Instagram, and Threads) will deactivate users under the age of 16. In the coming days, online platforms will send messages to Australian teens via more than a million accounts, giving them options to: download their data, freeze their profile, or lose everything.
After this ban, the remaining 20 million social media users in Australia will continue to have access, representing roughly four-fifths of the population.
Government’s Rationale for the Ban
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated that this ban has been imposed to prevent the digital world from harming children’s mental health or development. Under the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024, minors will be prohibited from creating or maintaining accounts on major social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, X (formerly Twitter), Reddit, Threads, and Kick. This will be effective from December 10, 2025.
Companies Gear Up for Compliance
TikTok, which reportedly has nearly 200,000 Australian users aged 13-15, informed parliament that it is designing a button to report suspected underage users. Other apps are also developing various methods for age detection. Some apps will estimate age based on selfies.
