A teenager in Australia can still watch YouTube. What they cannot do is sign in. Since the ban began on 10 December, under-16s have been barred from holding accounts on YouTube, TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Threads, according to the BBC. New sign-ups are blocked and existing profiles were deactivated.
Ten platforms are covered in all, including Reddit and the streaming services Kick and Twitch. YouTube Kids, Google Classroom and WhatsApp were left out because they did not meet the government’s test. That test asks whether a service exists mainly for online social interaction, lets users interact with others, and lets them post material. Under-16s can also still view most content that does not require an account. Critics want gaming sites such as Roblox and Discord added.
Why the government did it
Canberra argued that social media’s design features push young people to spend more time on screens while serving content that can harm their health. A study it commissioned in 2025 found that 96% of children aged 10 to 15 used social media. Seven out of 10 of them had seen harmful content, including misogynistic and violent material and posts promoting eating disorders and suicide. One in seven reported grooming-type behavior from adults or older children, and more than half said they had been cyberbullied.
Enforcement
Children and parents face no penalty. The companies do, with fines of up to A$49.5m (US$32m, £25m) for serious or repeated breaches. They must take “reasonable steps” and use more than one age-checking method, such as government ID, face or voice recognition, or “age inference” from online behavior. Self-certification and parental vouching do not count.
Meta began closing teen accounts on 4 December and let anyone wrongly removed prove their age with ID or a video selfie. Snapchat accepted bank accounts, photo ID or selfies. Early worries were that the tools could block adults while missing minors. Former Facebook executive Stephen Scheeler also questioned the fine: “It takes Meta about an hour and 52 minutes to make A$50 million in revenue,” he told the AAP news agency.
Age data may be used only for verification and must then be destroyed, the government says, with “serious penalties” for breaches. Critics point to Australia’s string of data breaches.
Industry reaction and workarounds
When the ban was announced in November 2024, companies said it would be hard to implement and easy to dodge. YouTube argued days before the start that the “rushed” laws would leave children less safe, because they could still use the site without an account and lose parental controls and safety filters. Google reportedly weighed a legal challenge but did not respond to the BBC. TikTok and Snap told parliament in October 2025 they opposed the ban but would comply. Reddit said it would comply while voicing “deep concerns.”
Just before the start, three little-known apps, Lemon8, Yope and Coverstar, saw download spikes that later faded. VPN downloads rose and then returned to normal. A month in, one teenager told the BBC she “felt free.” Another said it hadn’t “really changed anything”, and that he spent about as much time online as before, partly using accounts with fake birthdays.
Elsewhere, Denmark plans a ban for under-15s and Norway is weighing one. In January, the UK’s House of Lords voted to back an under-16 ban, as an amendment to the government’s schools bill.
