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This page has information about the new Australian laws relating to the social media ban for children and young people under 16.
From 10 December 2025 it is against the law for children under 16 years in Australia to have an account on certain social media platforms. The ban will apply to children who had an account before that date and to new users under 16.
Social media platforms must take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 from having an account or face a fine of up to $49.5m.
A social media platform is an online service where the main purpose is to enable online social interactions between two or more users like chatting or posting.
The eSafety Commissioner has confirmed that the following services are included in the ban – Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, X, Threads, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Twitch and Kick.
Other platforms like Discord, Roblox, GitHub, Yope and Lemon8, as well as new social media platforms developed in the future, could be covered by the ban at any time.
Social media apps that are mainly used for education or health, or for sending messages, are not expected to be banned. For example, headspace, Kids Helpline, Google Classroom, WhatsApp, YouTube Kids, LEGO Play, Messenger or Youth Law Australia’s webchat service.
The government may also make more laws that say specific platforms or types of platforms are (or are not) age-restricted social media platforms.
Current users under 16 will have different options to delete, disable or deactivate their accounts. Depending on the platform this could mean putting an existing account on hold until the young person turns 16 or archiving content. Content can also be downloaded before the account is shut down. You can access information about what to do for each platform in the eSafety Guide.
Platforms must also stop young people making new accounts until they turn 16.
This is up to the platforms. The main thing to know is that requesting ID cannot be the only way to check your age.
Each platform will verify age differently. Some of the information about how this will happen is not public as this could help people avoid the ban.
Some of the ways age can be determined or verified include:
Each platform will have an appeal process. This might require you to provide government approved identification, or send video or photo selfies, or use credit card checks.
Selfies will be checked using facial age estimation services like Yoti (Meta, TikTok) and k-ID (Snapchat).
Each platform should provide information about how to appeal and if you need help, please contact us here.
No, you will not get in trouble if you are under 16 and on a banned social media platform. You can’t be fined or charged. Your parents won’t get into trouble either.
The changes to the law impact the responsibilities of social media companies. If they don’t take the right steps to keep under 16s off socials they can be fined.
The changes don’t make things against the law for children, and you won’t get in trouble from the government for contacting your friends or for having a phone. You will still be able to send DMs and text messages to your friends and family from your phone and via the apps that are not banned.
You have a right to be safe online and to get help even if you lied about your age or used someone else’s account, identity or device. For example, if you are under 16 and used a banned social media platform, but something happens, like you got tricked into sending a nude or you are being bullied or threatened, you can still get help.
You can report online sexual abuse and extortion to ACCCE and cyberbullying or other online harm to eSafety.
You can contact us for help here including if you are worried about getting into trouble for something you did to hurt someone else online.
The social media ban impacts the human rights of children and young people. Key rights that are impacted are the right to:
You can read more about your rights on our page about the Convention on the Rights of the Child here.
You can access more information about the ban and how to cope with the changes via these links:
Support for children and young people
How parents, carers and advocates can help
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