Australia’s Digital Exodus: The Under-16 Social Media Ban..

Описание: More than 4.7 million social media accounts belonging to Australians assessed by platforms as being under the age of 16 were deactivated, removed or restricted in the days immediately after Australia’s under-16 social media ban took effect in December, the prime minister has said.

After the ban came into force on 10 December, the eSafety commissioner sought information from affected platforms on how many accounts had been taken down or limited to comply with the new law.

The ban applies to 10 platforms: Twitch, Kick, YouTube, Threads, Facebook, Instagram, Snap, X, TikTok and Reddit. Data provided in response, released by the prime minister on Thursday, showed that more than 4.7 million accounts were affected within the first few days.

The government declined to release platform-by-platform figures, citing commercial confidentiality. However, Meta confirmed on Monday that it had deactivated nearly 550,000 accounts across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Guardian Australia has contacted the remaining platforms for comment.

Prime minister Anthony Albanese said early analysis from the eSafety commissioner indicated that platforms were actively preventing underage users from maintaining accounts.

“It’s encouraging to see social media companies making genuine efforts to comply with the law and keep children off their platforms,” Albanese said. “Change takes time, but these early results show why taking action was necessary.”

Communications minister Anika Wells said eSafety would further analyse the data to assess individual platform compliance.

“We never expected perfect compliance immediately, but these early numbers suggest the law is already having a real and meaningful impact,” she said.

The federal opposition, which originally championed the policy, has criticised the rollout, claiming it has underperformed. Shadow communications minister Melissa McIntosh said many under-16 accounts remained active, some reappeared after being removed, and new accounts were still being created.

She also argued that age-verification tools were easy to bypass and that children had shifted to alternative platforms such as Yope and Lemon8, which are not currently covered by the ban.

Under the legislation, platforms must self-assess whether the ban applies to them, and the government has said it will engage with additional platforms if underage users migrate elsewhere. Some services, including X alternative Bluesky, have already introduced age-assurance measures despite not being on the original list.

As other countries, including the UK, consider similar restrictions, new research tracking UK teenagers aged 11 to 14 found no evidence that increased social media use or gaming led to higher levels of anxiety or depression. The study reported no negative mental health effects in subsequent years linked to social media use.

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