Australia Doubles Down on Under-16 Social Media Ban, Doubles Fines to $99 Million

Australia’s Labor government says it is now “doubling down” on the nation’s strict under-16s social media ban which was first implemented last year, increasing fines and extending information-gathering powers.The legislation was passed in December 2025, in an attempt to prevent children from viewing age-inappropriate content, while cracking down on bullying and addiction.Nations including Indonesia, Malaysia and the United Kingdom have since started implementing their own bans.Under Australia’s reforms introduced last year, large social media companies were required to prevent Australians under the age of 16 from accessing their platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, YouTube and Reddit.Social media companies who failed to keep youths off their platforms faced fines of almost $50 million (US$32 million).However, recent surveys have found youths are still finding ways to circumvent the ban with a British Medical Journal study finding 85 percent of interviewed young Australians recorded no major cutback in social media use.In response, on June 28, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government would expand the information-gathering powers of the government’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, and bump up the maximum fine for Big Tech firms to $99 million.“We have already seen more than 5 million under-16s accounts removed, deactivated or restricted since the ban began on December 10,” he said in a joint statement with Communications Minister Anika Wells.“However, it is clear that eSafety needs more tools in their belt to take on these billion-dollar social media companies and hold them to account.”Under these new rules, the commissioner can compel social media companies to provide evidence of what they have done to prevent under-16s from from having accounts on their platforms.“The changes will make it easier for eSafety to gather evidence by empowering the independent regulator to demand information and documents, to ensure companies are complying with Australian law,” Albanese said.“Importantly this includes information from third parties, such as age assurance or app-store providers, which may assist in validating or testing claims made by platforms.”The government says the commissioner is actively investigating potential non-compliance in relation to Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.Wells said she did not believe tech companies were doing “everything they can” to stop children getting online.“Based on the regular updates I receive from the eSafety Commissioner, it is clear to me that social media platforms are adopting tricks straight out of the Big Tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by,” she said.“Social media platforms are some of the richest and most powerful companies in the world, and we’re serious about holding them to account.”The Epoch Times contacted Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) and X for comment.Young People Still OnlineThe announcement comes as a new study released this month in the British Medical Journal, found no “immediate substantive reductions” in adolescents’ accessing platforms.In a study of 436 youths, daily social media use had not changed among those aged 12-13.A small reduction was noted in those aged 14-15.“Social media use is ubiquitous and habitual among adolescents and serves core social functions, including supporting peer interaction, identity formation, and social connectedness,” the researchers concluded.The study noted that some age verification measures were very simple, in one case, two-thirds of respondents were simply asked to declare their age. Other platforms required photo ID or used facial analysis technology.In May, Commissioner Grant told an Australian Senate estimates hearing that there was no “fine issuing button” when it came to forcing big companies to comply with the government’s bans.Her comments were made due to questions around why some companies had not received fines despite being under investigation.“Unfortunately, we don’t have a fine issuing button, rather, systemic non-compliance needs to be proven in court with solid evidence and complex legal proceedings,” she said.When queried by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson on why there was such a high rate on non-compliance, Inman-Grant replied that it was the responsibility of tech companies, not children, to enforce the ban.