In a significant move to protect younger users online, Australia is set to enforce stricter age restrictions on social media platforms starting next week. The new regulations require platforms to report monthly on the closure of children’s accounts, as they implement a 16-year age limit.
According to Communications Minister Anika Wells, companies like Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, and YouTube will face hefty fines — up to 50 million Australian dollars (equivalent to $33 million) — if they do not take reasonable measures to eliminate accounts belonging to Australian children under the age of 16 by December 10. Recently, Twitch, a popular livestreaming service, was added to this list of platforms subject to the new age restrictions.
The Australian eSafety Commissioner plans to issue notices to these ten platforms on December 11, requesting information about the number of accounts they have removed. This process will continue with monthly notices over a six-month period.
Minister Wells emphasized that the government understands the complexity of age verification, which may require a fair and accurate process that could take days or weeks. However, she made it clear that platforms found to be in systemic violation of the law would face financial penalties. The eSafety regulator stated that repeated breaches could lead to maximum fines being imposed by a court.
“The government recognizes that age assurance may require several days or weeks to complete fairly and accurately,” Communications Minister Anika Wells told the National Press Club of Australia.
“However, if eSafety identifies systemic breaches of the law, the platforms will face fines,” she added. The eSafety regulator said a court would apply the penalty up to the maximum if the platform had repeated violations.
Google said Wednesday that anyone in Australia under 16 would be signed out of its platform YouTube from Dec. 10 and lose features accessible only to account holders such as playlists.
Google would determine YouTube account holders’ ages based on personal data contained in associated Google accounts and other signals.
“We have consistently said this rushed legislation misunderstands our platform, the way young Australians use it and, most importantly, it does not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online,” a Google statement said.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said suspected young children will be removed from those platforms from Thursday.
Account holders 16 and older who were mistakenly removed could contact Yoti Age Verification and verify their age by providing government-issued IDs or a video selfie, Meta said.
The Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project is hoping the High Court will issue an injunction preventing the law from taking effect next week.
A court hearing date had not been set by Wednesday.
“Over the coming months, we will fight to defend this law in the High Court because parents … right across Australia asked for government to step up,” Wells said.
Last month, the Malaysian government said it would ban social media accounts for children younger than 16 from 2026.
Wells said the European Commission, France, Denmark, Greece, Romania and New Zealand were also interesting in setting a minimum age for social media.
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