New social media law Australia wants to protect its teenagers - and is taking drastic measures

From midnight (local time) on December 10, children and young people in Australia will be subject to a social media ban. Here is an overview.

From 10 December, a social media ban will apply in Australia for children and young people under the age of 16. blue News explains which platforms are affected, how this came about and the penalties for circumventing the law:

Australia is the first country in the world to ban social media for children and young people. From Wednesday, many of the world's largest social media platforms will have to delete the accounts of all users under the age of 16 in Australia. Due to the time difference, the start date in Switzerland is 9 December at 2 pm.

Hundreds of thousands of children and young people are affected by the ban. Instagram alone has around 350,000 Australian users between the ages of 13 and 15. Snapchat expects around 440,000 users to be affected.

The law applies to platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit and the live streaming platforms Twitch and Kick.

Several apps that, according to eSafety, are primarily used for exchanging messages or playing games are exempt, including Facebook Messenger, Pinterest, WhatsApp and YouTube Kids.

The messenger service Discord and the gaming platform Roblox are also not affected - although both are heavily criticized for doing too little to protect minors.

The government under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese passed the law at the end of 2024. Almost all major parties support the initiative.

The government justified the new law with the well-being of teenagers: young people should be protected from spending too much time in front of screens and consuming content that is harmful to their health and well-being.

At the beginning of 2025, the government commissioned a study on the subject. The result: 96 percent of children between the ages of ten and fifteen use social media. Seven out of ten of them come into contact with harmful content there, including misogynistic or violence-glorifying posts as well as depictions that glorify eating disorders or suicidal behaviour.

One in seven children also stated that they had been exposed to grooming-like behavior by adults or older children - grooming is the systematic establishment of a relationship of trust with minors by perpetrators with sexual intentions. More than half of those surveyed also stated that they had already been the victim of cyberbullying.

After the new law was passed, the platforms were given twelve months to implement the new age restriction - and to ensure that children and young people stay away from their platform.

But how will the age of users be checked? That remains a big question. The law does not prescribe any specific methods for verifying age. However, various methods are possible: from checking official IDs to facial or voice recognition and automatic age estimation. The latter analyze a person's online behavior - such as their interactions or usage habits - in order to determine their age as accurately as possible.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has started to check accounts based on the age data provided during registration. If there is any suspicion, the accounts are deactivated. Those who are wrongly affected can prove their age with an official document or a video. Only suspicious accounts are checked, for example if the specified age is changed.

Snapchat has been testing age verification by ID or facial age estimation via the "k-ID" app in Australia since the end of November. TikTok is also planning similar procedures with ID data, credit card verification and facial analysis.

It is not children and parents who will be punished, but the tech companies. Platforms that disregard the Australian government's requirements or fail to implement effective child protection measures will face heavy fines. Up to 49.5 million Australian dollars - around 26 million Swiss francs - could be due if they do not take "appropriate measures" to comply with the regulations.

Critics point out that such amounts are far too low for tech companies that make billions from personalized advertising. In addition, it is still unclear how the implementation of the legal requirements will be monitored.

The Australian government and Internet Safety Authority assume that young people will try to circumvent the new rules - for example with fake IDs, AI-manipulated photos or by using VPNs. The latter make it possible to pretend to the platforms that you are logging in from the USA, for example, even though you are actually in Australia.

The results of the surveys vary. Some polls show an unusually wide approval rating of 60 to 80 percent , but most recently the ABC asked Australians between the ages of 9 and 15 for their opinion on the social media ban. The results were published at the beginning of the month and show that Most of those surveyed do not believe the ban will work.

Around 140 researchers and psychologists from various countries also warn against making social media responsible for psychological stress in young people across the board.

Although studies have shown links between intensive use and problems such as depression or anxiety, a direct causal link has not been clearly established. It remains unclear whether social networks exacerbate stress - or whether young people who are already stressed tend to seek refuge there.

Experts such as the Australian communication scientist Catherine Page Jeffrey also point out the positive aspects of social media: they enable social support, especially for queer young people or young people in remote regions.

The process is also criticized: young people themselves were hardly consulted. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child emphasizes the right to digital participation. Instead of bans, it calls for stricter rules for platforms, mandatory safety standards, better media education and clear guidelines for parents.