Australia social media ban LIVE updates: Children under 16 barred from social media as world-first legislation takes effect

eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant said platforms that refused to comply with the ban would be dealt with, and assessment would begin from tomorrow.

“The gaze of the world is upon us right now, and sometimes it isn’t the regulation or the fines that actually compels them to do the right thing. It is about the reputation and revenue,” she told Today.

Inman Grant said platforms had pushed back because they would no longer be able to monetise millions of teens’ attention.

“We may see some cases, we may see some blatant non-compliance, but we’ve got plans for that. The action won’t be immediate. Tomorrow, we’ll be issuing about 10 notices to ask them a range of questions so we can collect the baseline data and see how they’re progressing.”

Hours before the social media ban came into effect overnight, TikTok started notifying all users, including those who are over the age of 16, of updates to the platform’s terms.

“Users must now be 16 or older to use TikTok in Australia,” read a pop-up notification, which blocked the whole screen and only allowed users to proceed with using the app after clicking an ‘OK’ button.

Notifications for all users started popping up on social media apps including TikTok on December 9, hours before the social media ban officially came into effect.

“We’ll use your age information to confirm if you’re old enough to use TikTok and for other purposes, as described in our privacy policy. By continuing, you agree to our terms of service.”

The eSafety Commissioner’s regulatory guidelines encourage social media platforms to use a “waterfall approach” when it comes to age assurance methods, which means starting with the least intrusive, most convenient method.

That usually means social media platforms analyse behavioural data of all users, such as the age of the account and the type of content it interacts with, to rule out if a user is under-16.

Loading

If the platform believes a user is under-16 based on the account’s behaviour, they then move on to more intense methods, such as facial age estimation and government-ID verification.

Labor’s ambitious plans to ban young teenagers from social media is being put to the test today. The world’s biggest social media platforms are expected to kick more than half a million children off their apps, while thousands of families plot ways to get around the new rules.

Psychologists are telling parents to prepare for intense emotions as their teens grapple with the overnight change to their social habits, while jurisdictions from Canada to the European Union will be closely monitoring how the tech giants comply with Australia’s new laws.

Patty De Benedetto (left), Eddy Coulson and Jordan Huang, who are all in year 7 and affected by the social media ban.Credit: Eddie Jim

Dr Erika Penney, president of the Australian Clinical Psychology Association, said there would be a significant adjustment period for teenagers as the changes took effect.

“Losing access to these platforms may feel really overwhelming for a young person and parents will be on the frontline responding to any heightened emotions and restoring a sense of offline connection,” Dr Penney said.

Read the full story here.

Counselling service Kids Helpline and Parentline have seen a “noticeable increase in contacts” in the past three to four weeks, virtual services manager Tony FitzGerald tells this masthead.

FitzGerald says the helplines, particularly Kids Helpline, saw its biggest week of contacts last week, and it expects that to increase as the legislation comes into effect in earnest.

The service has been tracking the number of contacts made regarding the social media ban since the beginning of 2025, and says in the past three weeks, they have had about 30 calls related to the social media ban.

“They might be small numbers in the background of the volumes of calls we get for Kids Helpline, but it’s quite a significant increase because we’ve been tracking this data since the beginning of the year,” FitzGerald tells this masthead.

“We’ve only been getting one or two calls a week, if that, and now it’s really jumped up… last week alone, we had 10 calls that we were able to identify specifically around this issue.”

According to the Resolve Political Monitor polling conducted for our mastheads, Australians are overwhelmingly in favour of the ban, but just over a third think it’ll work and only a third of parents plan to enforce it properly.

Nearly 70 per cent of voters back the world-leading ban, but only 35 per cent are confident that social platforms will manage to effectively block users under the age of 16.

The poll found 29 per cent of parents planned to fully enforce the ban by deleting apps off their kids’ phones, while 53 per cent said they would pick and choose what their child could look at and that they would review parental controls.

Thirteen per cent plan to take no action on the ban.

eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant has begun the broadcast circuit this morning, highlighting that the social media ban won’t be perfect from today.

“Regulation does take a while. You have to engage with the platforms – we will be monitoring a range of things,” Inman Grant told Today.

“This is why we ask [the platforms] to take a layered approach. We don’t want a single point of failure. None of these technologies are perfect, but together, if they’re doing age inference and possibly using ID, not exclusively, but where it’s required, and using other methods like parental vouching and then facial age estimation and liveness tests, they should get to a place where they do know who’s under 16.”

eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant.Credit: Nine

Inman Grant said she could barely contain her excitement about today’s incoming restrictions, though said she had aged “in dog years” throughout the process.

Have you managed to circumvent the social media ban, or were you kicked off your favourite platform weeks ago? Let us know what life is looking like in your household today.