This explainer first considers how the ban affects teens and how under-16s may access support services to supplement the support social media offered them. It then turns to the details of how the ban will be implemented.

What is the social media ban?

The social media ban comes into effect on Wednesday December 10, 2025. From this date Australians under 16 will not be able to make new accounts or continue using current accounts on the following ten platforms:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Kick
• Reddit
• Snapchat
• Threads
• TikTok
• Twitch
• X (formerly Twitter)
• YouTube (YouTube Kids will still be accessible)

Note: the Government is monitoring other applications and also expects app providers to self monitor so this list may expand in the future.

The government has been clear that the onus rests on the social media companies who face fines up to $49.5 million if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s accessing their platforms. No-one using a platform will be fined or in breach of any law.

Risks to wellbeing

The Social Media Ban fails to realise that as well as harms, there are benefits to using social media, particularly for young people who are under-supported in their offline lives. 73% of young people use social media for mental health support. Young people seeking help with their sexuality or gender, or who are being bullied or abused, use social media to communicate with their peers and build community.

Young people understand this and hold concerns regarding how the ban will affect vulnerable people in the community. Below are two comments made to the ABC by young people surveyed about the ban:

“What happens to the children with mental health issues, disabilities or even living in remote areas? Social media can be the difference between having human connection and going without. Children who cannot go through school hallways without being called slurs and harassed use social media as a haven where they can find a community which provides support and understands their daily stressors.”

“I go to an online school in Adelaide, everyone here relies on social media to literally make and keep friends. The ban is created by neurotypicals for neurotypicals. I’m 16 so the ban doesn’t “affect” me, however I haven’t always been 16 but I have been a young person with mental health issues, I have been a young person who’s been bullied and I have always and always will be a neurodivergent person who knows and has to deal with the struggle of making friends. The ban doesn’t take into account ALL young Australians.”

Where to find help if you feel isolated because of the Social Media Ban

If you are a young person, or know a young person who has lost their online support network you may find the following resources useful:

• Minus18 is a LGBTQ+ organisation that frequently runs under 18 LGBTQ+ events which provide youth with an opportunity to connect with other young LGBTQ+ individuals.
• YSAS offers support across Melbourne for youth experiencing mental health challenges including drug and alcohol use.
• For young people at risk of homelessness see Melbourne City Mission’s Frontyard Youth Services.
• For boys aged 8-16 in the inner west of Melbourne see here for ‘A supportive social and emotional space with dinner and activities, focusing on positive role modelling and emotional well-being’.
• Headspace offers both study support and mental health support to youth across Australia.
• Each offers youth support on a range of topics including family violence, mental health, study, LGBTQ+ and family counselling.
• For youth in rural western NSW, this hotline offers tailored mental health support.
• The Trans Social Club operates in person in Melbourne, but also has a zoom equivalent, accessible to trans youth across Australia. The service is open to all trans and gender diverse youth and provides an opportunity to meet peers in a positive environment.
• Trans Gender Victoria offers employment support, creative opportunities and other events for trans and gender diverse youth to connect.
• The Queer Psychosocial Outreach Program Operates in Melbourne’s Western suburbs and offers support for LGBTQ+ youth aged 12 and up, particularly for those with neurodivergence of facing psychosocial challenges.
• The Living Room offers support for youth who are at risk of homelessness through medical care, life admin support, legal help and more.

Social media platforms are now central forums for political discourse particularly among younger Australians, providing access to political information and enabling direct engagement with public figures, policy debates, and protest movements.

If you or a kid you know wants to remain politically connected please see the resources below:

• Join the School Strike for Climate movement.
• UN Youth Australia aims to equip youth with the skills and knowledge necessary to create meaningful political change.
• Australian Youth Affairs Coalition offers monthly alerts to keep youth updated on ‘opportunities to develop their confidence, skills and advocacy.’

How will social media platforms know if I’m under or over 16?

Age Assurance

The ten social media platforms are now required to take steps to ensure that users are over the age of 16.

There are a number of approved ways that platforms may attempt to verify that a user is over the age of 16. All of the methods have their own accuracy and privacy issues, which we discuss further below..

The Age Assurance Technology Trial identified and tested five approved methods by which platforms may verify a user’s age. These are the three approved for use in the Social Media Ban:

• Use of government issued documents
• Facial recognition and age estimation
• AI driven profiling

Although not tested in the trial, tech platforms may also request banking information, such as credit card information to verify age.

Use of government issued documents

The first method is submitting government issued documents, including your Digital ID. While assurances were given that strong safeguards, including a “double-blind” system, would prevent unnecessary data collection, these assurances are now being rolled back.

The problems with using government issued documents include both easy-to-bypass ID methods and serious privacy risks:

• Children can procure the photo ID of someone above the age threshold, perhaps by borrowing that of a parent or older sibling.
• The individual’s identity will be shared and stored with a large internet platform - the same companies who regularly invade our privacy in order to sell targeted advertisements.
• The pervasive collection of Australians’ identity papers as they navigate the internet sets an expectation that our IDs are safe to share on the internet. This risks the proliferation of identity theft.
• Platforms must have an alternative option for age verification, so individuals cannot be forced to surrender government issued documents.

Facial recognition and age estimation

The second method for attempting to provide platforms with age assurance is age estimation through facial recognition. In practice this means uploading various angles of your face which is then compared to a massive dataset to determine an age estimate.

The problems with facial recognition for age estimation are well known and are problematic for a number of reasons:

• Biometric systems are unreliable, especially for people of colour, women, and young people whose physical development varies significantly.
• Facial recognition technology becomes increasingly inaccurate as children age, meaning facial recognition errors are inevitable, especially for people close to the age threshold (e.g. 14-17). Women and people of colour are significantly more likely to be inaccurately identified.
• These age estimation systems can easily be fooled by simple disguises, such as masks, and fake glasses with moustaches, highlighting their inadequacy.
• Facial recognition technology introduces large-scale biometric data collection, with heightened risks of breaches and misuse. Restricted sites will be handling sensitive biometric data without guardrails as to the deletion, use, retention or protection of such data. If this data is stored overseas governments may be able to access incredibly sensitive data regarding Australians.

AI-driven profiling

AI-driven profiling infers a user’s age from behavioural data. This means using your search, post, or viewing history to determine your likely age.

This approach reinforces the data-extractive business models of online platforms, incentivising the collection of ever more granular personal data. AI-driven profiling requires the entity to already have this data stored in its database. This provides entities with a legally-grounded excuse to surveil users and collect granular personal data.

Such systems are error-prone and context-blind. For example:

• An adult who frequently consumes child-oriented content (e.g., animated films) might be misclassified as a child.
• A child accessing adult content might be classified as an adult, defeating the intended purpose. A child uses their parents YouTube account, resulting in a varied user watch history

These inaccuracies could lead to arbitrary access restrictions while legitimising harmful forms of surveillance capitalism.

Credit card checks

Credit card checks assume that everyone who has a credit card is over the age of 18 and everyone over the age of 18 has a credit card. Credit cards are increasingly unpopular with young adults who prefer debit cards, creating a barrier for young adults to access the internet. Furthermore, many individuals over the age of 18 cannot access credit cards.

Credit cards can easily be borrowed or stolen, making them a poor proxy for proving age. If credit card checks become commonplace, it will be easier for scammers to make fraudulent requests for credit card information creating new opportunities for scams, fraud, and exploitation.

Skirting the ban

A recent survey found that only 6% of Australian kids aged 9 to 15 believe the social media ban will work and that 75% plan on continuing social media use.

The social media ban only applies to accounts accessing the platforms from Australia, meaning that the ban can be skirted by accessing the platforms not logged in or through a VPN.

There are important considerations to be had when using these methods. Firstly, VPNs should be chosen carefully. Free VPNs have been known to introduce malware onto phones, collect and sell user data and screenshot passwords. See here and here for lists of recommended, privacy friendly VPNs.

Using platforms such as TikTok without being logged in does not prevent the algorithm from learning what engages the user. In order to do this, the user will be shown a variety of different themes and their responses will unknowingly influence what they are shown next. This themed content can include things like misogynistic content, to which repeat exposure can foster radicalisation.

The need for systemic reform

The harms posed by social media to children are both serious and complex. However, this ban does not address the root causes of those harms.

Young people deserve reform to address the underlying systems which enable the spread of harmful content: data extractive business models and algorithmic amplification.

Prohibiting access does nothing to change these fundamentally rights-abusive business models. Instead, the ban is a superficial solution that delays the need for meaningful, systemic reform.