Since December 2024, Australia has been conducting an unprecedented social experiment: completely banning access to social media for those under 16. TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, Snapchat, YouTube, Threads, Reddit, and the streaming platforms Kick and Twitch are now off-limits to this age group. New accounts cannot be created, and existing profiles have been deactivated.
This radical measure raises a crucial question: can we really protect young people by excluding them from the digital world?
A response to massive exposure to toxic content
Australian authorities did not take this decision lightly. A government study conducted in 2025 revealed alarming figures: 96% of children aged 10 to 15 used social media, and seven out of ten had been exposed to harmful content — violence, misogyny, promotion of eating disorders and suicide.
Even more worrying, one in seven children reported experiencing manipulative behavior from adults or older teenagers, while more than half were victims of cyberbullying. Faced with this data, the government justified the ban as a way to counter "design features that encourage young people to spend more time on screens, while also disseminating content that can harm their health and well-being."
Ten platforms in our sights
The Australian legislator has defined three criteria to determine which platforms fall under the ban: their main objective must be to facilitate online social interaction between multiple users, they must allow users to interact with each other, and permit the posting of content.
The result: ten platforms are targeted. But some grey areas remain. YouTube Kids, Google Classroom, and WhatsApp escape the ban because they are deemed non-compliant with the criteria. As for online gaming platforms like Roblox and Discord, they are not included, which is prompting criticism of the inconsistency of the system.
The responsibility lies with the platforms, not with the families.
The Australian approach is distinguished by a strategic choice: it is not the children or their parents who risk sanctions, but the companies themselves. Platforms that do not take "reasonable measures" to prevent minors from accessing their services face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (approximately 32 million US dollars).
To verify users' ages, companies must combine several technologies: facial or voice recognition, government-issued identity documents, or "age inference" based on online behavior analysis. Snapchat, for example, now offers verification via bank account, ID photo, or selfie. A crucial distinction: platforms can no longer rely on users' self-declarations or parental consent.
Flaws and concerns
The implementation raises legitimate questions. The Australian government's own report admits that facial recognition technologies are least reliable precisely for teenagers—the group targeted by the law. And as Stephen Scheeler, a former Facebook executive, pointed out to the AAP news agency: "It takes Meta about one hour and 52 minutes to generate AU$50 million in revenue
." Are the fines truly a deterrent?
Other critics point to problematic exclusions: dating sites, artificial intelligence chatbots — some of which have recently made headlines for encouraging suicidal behavior or engaging in inappropriate conversations with minors — and gaming platforms are not covered.
The issue of personal data protection is also central. Verifying the age of millions of users requires collecting and storing sensitive information in a country that has experienced several high-profile data breaches. The government assures that the legislation imposes "strict protections": the data can only be used for age verification and must then be destroyed, under penalty of severe sanctions.
Divided teenagers, resilient platforms
Young people's reactions are mixed. A month after the ban came into effect, some teenagers interviewed by the BBC expressed a feeling of freedom, while others said that nothing had really changed — they continue to use the platforms via accounts with fake dates of birth or accounts shared with their parents.
On the business side, the reaction was icy. When the measure was announced in November 2024, tech giants denounced it as difficult to implement, easy to circumvent, time-consuming for users, and risky for their privacy. Google and YouTube even challenged their classification as social networks, and Google reportedly considered legal action.
Meta warned that the ban would leave teenagers with "inconsistent protections across the many apps they use." Reddit expressed "deep concerns" about a law that "undermines everyone's right to free speech and privacy."
A global laboratory for digital well-being
The Australian experiment is not taking place in isolation. Denmark is preparing a similar ban for those under 15, as is Norway. In France, a parliamentary commission has recommended a ban for those under 15 and a digital "curfew" for 15- to 18-year-olds. Spain is considering requiring authorization from legal guardians for those under 16.
In the UK, new safety regulations that came into effect in July 2025 threaten companies with heavy fines, or even imprisonment for their executives, if they fail to protect young people from illegal and harmful content. Last January, the House of Lords voted in favor of a ban for those under 16.
The Australian approach is divisive: is it better to completely exclude young people from social media, or to educate them so that they navigate these digital spaces more consciously? The first months of implementation suggest that even the strictest bans run up against reality: massive downloads of VPNs before the ban came into effect (even if levels have returned to normal), migration to lesser-known applications like Lemon8, Yope or Coverstar, and the creation of fake profiles.
What the Australian experience reveals is perhaps less the viability of a total ban than the urgent need for collective reflection on our relationship with technology and that of our children. Between radical exclusion and digital laissez-faire, is there a possible balance?
Source: How does Australia's under-16 social media ban work?
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