‘Throw the book at them’: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube under pressure amid teen social media ban

The eSafety commissioner is set to release a compliance update on social media companies following the Australian government’s ban for children under the age of 16. The independent regulator is expected to reveal that young teenagers are being allowed to repeatedly attempt age assurance until they pass, not enough is being done to stop underage users whose accounts have been deactivated from immediately opening a new one, and there are ineffective ways to report children. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube are being investigated for potential noncompliance. They could be slapped with penalties of up to $49.5m from systemic breaches. “The kind of tactics we’re seeing deployed by social media platforms to undermine Australia’s world-leading law are right out of the big tech playbook,” Minister for Communications Anika Wells said. “If eSafety finds these companies have systemically failed to uphold their legal obligations, I expect the commissioner to throw the book at them. “All of the platforms covered by our social media minimum age requirement said they would respect the law. “If these companies want to do business in Australia, they must obey Australian laws.” Under the legislation, social media platforms are required to take reasonable steps to prevent persons under 16 years of age from creating or holding an account, including verifying a user’s age. The world-first ban was implemented after News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign - leading to Australia becoming the first country in the world to raise the age of access. Meta brands Instagram and Facebook, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube are the 10 sites covered by these restrictions. The government claims 4.7 million accounts have been closed since the ban was put in place in December. Meta - the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp - has reported closing 550,000 accounts, while Snapchat and TikTok have reported closing a combined 665,000.