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Children under age 16 will be booted off social platforms from 10 December, with exceptions for health and education services, including WhatsApp and Meta's Messenger Kids. The federal government has announced the world-leading reforms will also apply to Reddit and Kick. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and X are among the platforms that will need to take "reasonable steps" to prevent under-16s from holding accounts. Tech giants that fail to do so will face fines of up to $49.5 million. Social media users cannot be forced to provide government-issued ID as the sole method to prove their age online and must be offered other options. The law puts the onus for compliance on the tech companies to "detect and deactivate or remove" accounts from underage users. About 1.5 million accounts on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Threads and X will be deactivated in less than two months as a result. eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant previously wrote to Reddit and other platforms asking them to self-assess whether they would be captured under the ban. Communications Minister Anika Wells said she had met with major social media platforms in the past month so they "understand there is no excuse for failure in implementing this law". "ESafety has assessed eight platforms as requiring age restriction but their assessments will be ongoing and this list is dynamic," she said. "We aren't chasing perfection. We are chasing a meaningful difference." Grant encouraged parents and young people to download the commission's resources and register for a live webinar where questions about the social media age restrictions can be answered. "Delaying children's access to social media accounts gives them valuable time to learn and grow, free of the powerful, unseen forces of opaque algorithms and endless scroll," she said. download our app subscribe to our newsletter
