Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025 is a big day for children under 16 in Australia, as the country’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese banned them from social media.
This world-first ban reportedly sees families taking back power from the tech giants, including Meta and more. However, Albanese warned that the implementation will be difficult. “This is the day when Australian families are taking back power from these big tech companies and they’re asserting the right of kids to be kids and for parents to have greater peace of mind,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
Well the U16 social media ban is a complete failure already with teens already finding loop holes
Australia was apparently setting a ‘World Standard’ and yet that World Standard is already collapsing.
— Mickamious (@MickamiousG) December 10, 2025
NPR quotes parents whose distraught children discover they have been shut out of platforms as the new law takes effect. Meanwhile, some kids have managed to fool the platform’s age estimation by drawing on facial hair. Meanwhile, older siblings and parents alike are likely to help some kids work around the restrictions.
As adults, the thought of not being able to doom scroll is scary. However, many do understand how dangerous social media can be for younger lives.
“This reform will change lives. For Australian kids… allowing them to just have their childhood. For Australian parents, enabling them to have greater peace of mind. But also for the global community, who are looking at Australia and saying: well, if Australia can do it, why can’t we?” Albanese told a gathering in Sydney, including the parents who blame social media for a child’s suicide.
Australia marked the launch of its under-16 social media ban with a symbolic display in Sydney, lighting the Harbour Bridge in green and gold and projecting the message “Let them be kids.” pic.twitter.com/daPBJPEuSL
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) December 10, 2025
Implementing the ban isn’t easy and it certainly doesn’t come cheap, as from Wednesday, platforms and apps such as Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Reddit, Kick, Snapchat, Threads and Twitch face heavy fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32.9 million) should they fail to take reasonable steps to delete the accounts of children younger than 16 in Australia.
In the meantime, the ban is being enforced by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, who said platforms already have the technology and their users’ personal data to enforce the under-16 age restriction.
Grant will send the 10 targeted social media platforms notices on Thursday, requesting information on how they will implement the age restriction, and how many accounts they have closed.
“We will provide information to the public before Christmas on how these age restrictions are being implemented and whether preliminarily we see them working,” Grant said.
Australia’s Communications Minister Anika Wells said the social media platforms “may not agree with the law and that’s their right – we don’t expect 100 percent universal support.”
However, each social media platform has undertaken to comply with the new law. She added that more than 200,000 TikTok accounts in Australia were deactivated by Wednesday.
Kids being kids, many are already seeking a work-around to keep their social media access, with some using VPNs (virtual private networks), where they can appear to be in a different location. However, Wells said that should they regularly post images of Australian beaches, they would be caught out and lose their account.
“Just because they might have avoided it (detection) today doesn’t mean they will be able to avoid it in a week’s time or a month’s time because social media platforms have to go back and routinely check under-16 accounts,” Wells said.
Albanese admitted that implementation of the ban will be difficult and not perfect, saying, “This is about, importantly, pushing back against big tech, saying that social media companies have a social responsibility,” Australia’s PM said.
Readers, do you think American children under the age of 16 should be banned from social media platforms? How would your children react to such a ban? Let us know by dropping a comment below.
