Australia warns online platforms about upcoming minimum age restrictions

The eSafety Commissioner has informed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Kick, and Reddit that they are required to comply with Australia’s Social Minimum Age restrictions rules.

Starting December 10th, 2025, the Social Minimum Age restriction rules will go into effect for the nine social media services.

The eSafety Commissioner, Australia’s online safety regulator, expects them to take “reasonable steps” to prevent children under the age of 16 from having accounts. Platforms that fail to do so risk civil penalties of up to $49.5 million.

“Delaying children’s access to social media accounts gives them valuable time to learn and grow, free of the powerful, unseen forces of harmful and deceptive design features such as opaque algorithms and endless scroll. This important normative change will be invaluable to parents and young people alike – creating friction or a check in the online ecosystem that previously did not exist,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said in a press release.

To help Australians understand and prepare for the upcoming changes, the eSafety Commissioner launched a public campaign featuring a comprehensive package of resources and webinars that provide additional details. This package includes a dedicated online hub, practical guidance for parents and caregivers, information for educators, and downloadable action plans.

“Our conversation starters, classroom resources, and step-by-step guides are all designed to support parents, carers, and educators to reset family digital rules and ensure this delay can be used to develop critical thinking and emotional resilience before having a social media account. More resources targeting at-risk young people and communities are currently in development and will follow soon,” Grant added.

In November 2024, Australia’s House of Representatives approved a bill banning the use of social media under the age of 16. Children under this age are no longer allowed to create accounts on social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube.

The goal of the ban is to combat both the mental and physical effects that social media platforms have been demonstrated to cause in young children, such as social isolation, sleep interference, addictive behaviors, and low life satisfaction.

“I want to see kids off their devices and onto the footy fields and the swimming pools and the tennis courts. We want them to have real experiences with real people because we know that social media is causing social harm,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the time.

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