Australia has officially enacted the world’s first nationwide social media ban for users under 16, ushering in a sweeping online safety regime that other governments are closely watching. As of Dec. 10, major platforms—Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Facebook, Threads, Twitch, Reddit, X and Kick—are legally required to deactivate existing accounts belonging to underage users and prevent new ones from being created.
Enforcement began even before the deadline, with Meta and other companies quietly locking or deleting accounts last week in preparation for a federal compliance review.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged that implementation will be uneven at first but stressed that the intent is clear: restoring agency to parents and reducing children’s exposure to algorithmic content, exploitation risks and addictive design. He compared the reform to setting a legal drinking age: teenagers might find occasional loopholes, but the existence of a national safety standard remains essential.
The ban arrives as Australia’s summer school break begins, causing particular distress for rural and remote teens who rely on digital platforms for social connection. Some youths, like 15-year-old Riley Allen, said the change will leave them isolated: “I’m not sure how we’re going to keep in touch over the holidays.” Already, thousands of teens are attempting workarounds. VPN tutorials are circulating on forums, parents and older siblings have been scanning their faces to bypass age verification, and teens are migrating to lesser-known apps such as Lemon8 and Yope.
The government warns these methods will be temporary; platforms must run ongoing audits of behavioural cues, communication patterns and geolocation metadata. Communications Minister Anika Wells said more companies may be added and that underage accounts identified later could still trigger multimillion-dollar fines, with penalties reaching as high as $45 million per platform. Global reaction has been swift. Denmark, Malaysia and France are exploring parallel measures, while the U.K. is tightening platform liability standards. In Canada, where the Online Harms Act collapsed during the election, officials say a revised bill to address youth exploitation online will be tabled soon.
Parental advocacy groups such as Vancouver-based Unplugged Canada argue the Australian rollout proves that decisive regulatory limits are both possible and enforceable. Founder Jenny Perez said parents had believed “it was too late to change the norm, but platforms are already complying.” Tech experts, however, caution that regulation alone cannot counter youth digital dependency. Toronto analyst Takara Small notes that children will simply relocate online if education and platform accountability do not evolve in tandem. “They may pivot to spaces without takedown systems,” she said, adding that literacy around data extraction, algorithmic pressure and digital consent must deepen.
Youth reactions in Canada are mixed. Montreal student Quentyn Archer, 16, considers a full ban “excessive,” though he supports time limits to reduce screen saturation. Still, the symbolism of Australia’s law is reverberating globally: a government asserting control over platforms long treated as unavoidable, and repositioning tech regulation as a child-protection imperative rather than a parental burden.
