Australia plans to strengthen laws banning children from social media
[June 26, 2026] By
ROD McGUIRK
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — The Australian government plans to
strengthen laws that ban children younger than 16 from social media
platforms, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.
Observers said on Friday the government was responding to evidence that
the ban on young children holding accounts on platforms including
Facebook, Instagram and YouTube had failed since it came into force on
Dec. 10 last year. Australia was the first country in the world to pass
legislation keeping youth off social media, but others have since
followed.
Albanese told Parliament on Thursday this government was considering
options to strengthen the ban.
“We’re working on that as a priority because this is something that
other generations didn’t have to deal with, which is why it’s complex,”
Albanese told Parliament.
He told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Friday the government was
asking “are the laws as strong as possible?” and did eSafety
Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, Australia’s online safety watchdog,
“have every power at her disposal?”
Britain announced last week plans to ban children under 16 from a range
of platforms to protect them from harmful content and excessive screen
time.
Canada, Brazil and Indonesia have introduced legislation or announced
age-based restrictions or requirements for children’s access to social
media. France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand and South Korea are among others
studying or developing similar approaches.
Inman Grant said in April she was considering court action against
Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, alleging they were
not doing enough to keep young Australian children off their platforms.
These platforms, as well as X, Kick, Reddit, Threads and Twitch, face
fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($34 million) if they
fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of young children.
Melbourne’s RMIT University expert on information sciences Lisa Given
said the government’s proposed reform was a response to evidence that
the ban was failing. The evidence included eSafety's own data released
in March that showed seven in 10 underage children continued to hold
accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok since December.
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Three boys use their phones while sitting outside a school in
Sydney, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
 Given also pointed to a study
published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday that found 85%
of a group of Australian 12 to 17-year-olds were using restricted
platforms.
“I do think it’s failing,” Given said. “Many kids in the media have
reported that they also think that this is really a failed
exercise.”
The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper reported Inman Grant saying in
an interview in early June: “I don’t have potent powers.”
“What I would say is a regulator is only as good as the tools and
the resources that they’re given,” she is quoted as saying.
The Associated Press asked Inman Grant’s office on Friday to comment
on the accuracy of that reporting, but her office did not
immediately reply.
Given said Inman Grant faced a challenge in enforcing legislation
that platforms were resisting.
“Either the eSafety Commissioner needs more powers or we’ve got to
have some other approach to enforcement,” Given said.
Given expected the courts would need to decide what constituted
“reasonable steps” required by the law to be taken to keep children
off platforms.
Albanese said as part of increased efforts to enforce the social
media ban, his government would proceed with digital duty of care
legislation which would hold platforms accountable for foreseeable
harms caused by content and algorithms.
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