Australia plans tougher social media ban for children under 16

Melbourne,UPDATED: Jun 26, 2026 13:42 IST

Australia plans to strengthen its laws banning children younger than 16 from social media platforms, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said, amid concerns that the restrictions have not worked as intended since they came into force on December 10 last year.

Albanese told Parliament on Thursday that the government was considering ways to make the ban stronger. He said on Friday that the government was reviewing whether the laws were “as strong as possible” and whether eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant had “every power at her disposal”.

Australia was the first country to pass legislation aimed at keeping young people off social media, but observers said the move was now being revisited because evidence showed many underage children were still holding accounts on platforms including Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Britain announced last week that it planned to ban children under 16 from a range of platforms to protect them from harmful content and excessive screen time.

Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced legislation or announced age-based restrictions or requirements for children’s access to social media. France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are among countries studying or developing similar measures.

Inman Grant said in April that she was considering court action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, alleging they were not doing enough to keep young Australian children off their platforms. These platforms, along with X, Kick, Reddit, Threads and Twitch, can face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of young children.

Melbourne’s RMIT University information sciences expert Lisa Given said the government’s proposed reform was a response to signs that the ban was failing. She pointed to eSafety data released in March that showed seven in 10 underage children had continued to hold accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok since December. She also referred to a study published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday, which found that 85 per cent of a group of Australian 12 to 17-year-olds were using restricted platforms.

“I do think it’s failing,” Given said. “Many kids in the media have reported that they also think that this is really a failed exercise.” She said Inman Grant faced a challenge in enforcing legislation that platforms were resisting, adding: “Either the eSafety Commissioner needs more powers or we’ve got to have some other approach to enforcement.” Given also said the courts would likely need to decide what counted as “reasonable steps” under the law.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Inman Grant said in an interview in early June: “I don’t have potent powers.” “What I would say is a regulator is only as good as the tools and the resources that they’re given,” she was quoted as saying. The Associated Press asked Inman Grant’s office on Friday to comment on the accuracy of the report, but there was no immediate reply.

Albanese said the government was treating the issue as a priority. “We’re working on that as a priority because this is something that other generations didn’t have to deal with, which is why it’s complex,” he told Parliament. He also said the government would go ahead with digital duty of care legislation to hold platforms accountable for foreseeable harms caused by content and algorithms, as Australia looks to tighten enforcement of its social media ban for children.

With PTI Inputs

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