World’s First Ban on Social Media Use by Teenagers in Australia

In the coming days, online platforms will review over one million teenage accounts in Australia in preparation for the enforcement of the world's first ban on social media use by children under 16, set to take effect on December 10. This information is reported by Reuters.

Five sources familiar with the plans of major tech companies revealed that Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are ready to deactivate user accounts in Australia belonging to users under 16. Teenagers will be offered a choice before deactivation: download their data, freeze their profiles, or lose all information in their accounts.

As previously reported, online platforms could face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (approximately 32 million USD) for non-compliance with the new law. Companies criticized the law, arguing that mandatory age verification would lead to endless logins, be intrusive, and unreliable.

However, Reuters notes that social media companies will now rely on existing software to determine users’ age, based on activity such as likes, rather than frequent input and verification of birth dates. Experts warn that, in practice, there may be glitches or service disruptions for users mistakenly denied access, lasting a few days or weeks until platforms resolve these issues.

Governments are grappling with the challenge of protecting children online, as recent years have seen increasing evidence of social media’s potential negative impact on teenagers.

In 2021, internal documents from Meta revealed the harm social networks could cause to the younger generation. In 2024, the bestseller "The Anxious Generation" by American social psychologist John Hyatt was published. Hyatt analyzes the influence of smartphones, social media, and excessive parental oversight on the mental health of youth, calling it "the great childhood restructuring." He notes that, according to statistical data, the levels of anxiety and depression among minors soared following the widespread adoption of smartphones.

The new Australian law has overcome resistance from free speech advocates, child rights defenders, social media companies, and content creators, Reuters reports. It gives online platform operators until December 2025 to implement measures to block accounts of minors without parental consent.

If the law is successfully implemented in Australia, it could influence global efforts to limit social media's impact on youth and other emerging technologies, according to the publication’s authors. “The rest of the world is watching Australia for a new tool to address the obvious problems some digital platforms face,” said Stephen Wilson, founder of Lockstep, a company specializing in digital identity and privacy protections.