Communications Minister Anika Wells used a National Press Club address on Wednesday to warn there will probably be children under 16 with social media accounts for “some time” after December 10. With almost 86 per cent of Australian children aged between eight and 15 on social media, Wells said it would take time for the age assurance “sieve” to “filter out the existing accounts and stop new accounts from being created”.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman GrantCredit: Alex Ellinghausen
“But our expectation is clear: any company that allows this is breaking the law,” she said.
Child rights advocate Amanda Third, who will serve on an independent academic panel evaluating the ban’s impacts, warned that many teenagers and their parents will be “a bit nervous about what lies ahead”.
“I think there’s a lot of unknowns,” Third told the Tech Mirror podcast. “One of the best things that people can do to prepare is to begin to have conversations at home about what it will mean to give up social media for those children and young people who are already on social media.”
There are no penalties or fines for parents or young people who find ways to continue using social media after the law takes effect. The onus is entirely on platforms to prevent access.
Zoe Hawkins, Johanna Weaver and Sunita Kumar launched the Tech Policy Design Centre.Credit: Martin Ollman
However, significant concerns remain about vulnerable young people who depend on social media for connection and support. Outgoing children’s commissioner Anne Hollonds has warned the ban could adversely affect children who already struggle to find belonging.
“The fear is that it might push them to darker places of the internet that have absolutely no protections for young people,” Third said. “If these young people perceive that what they are doing is illegal, they may be even less likely to seek help if they find trouble online.”
An independent evaluation panel of 12 academics will assess whether the ban achieves its intended outcomes, examining questions such as whether kids are sleeping better and interacting more with friends, as well as potential unintended consequences.
Already, alternative platforms are surging in popularity. The eSafety Commission has written to Lemon8 (owned by TikTok parent ByteDance) and photo-sharing app Yope, recommending they assess whether they fall under the ban after both apps shot to the top of app store charts.
Lemon8 has been running paid ads on TikTok promoting itself as an alternative, with one user post stating they “love lemon 8” because “it’s not affected by the social media ban and you can cross-post to TikTok”.
Yope has been around for a few years, and is a bit like Instagram except with private chatrooms instead of public posts and feeds.
The social media ban targets 10 major platforms: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, Snapchat, Twitch, Kick, Reddit and YouTube. Companies face fines up to $49.5 million if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from accessing their platforms.
The law has also sparked a High Court challenge from the Digital Freedom Project, which argues it’s a “blatant attack” on young Australians’ constitutional rights to political speech.
On Thursday, Australia’s grand experiment in age-gating social media begins in earnest with the world watching to see if the strictest online restrictions for minors can actually work.
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