Australia increases penalties for violating social media bans for children and minors

Tougher penalties and new powers for the regulator

In a recent press release, the Australian government announced that it would double the maximum fine for any company that violates the minimum age law. The fine increases from 49.5 million to 99 million Australian dollars, which is more than 68 million American dollars. This move came in response to growing evidence that the existing ban, which has been in effect since December 2025, is not effective enough.

“It is clear that the big tech giants are not doing enough to comply with the law. These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure of social networks to comply with our world-leading law,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a statement.

In addition to the increase in fines, the government also grants greater powers to the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant. Her office can now demand evidence from social networks about how they prevent children under the age of 16 from opening accounts. A significant innovation is the possibility of collecting evidence of compliance from third parties, such as providers of age verification services or application stores, which further strengthens the control over the claims of technology companies.

The effectiveness of the ban is still under question

Although the government has reported that more than five million accounts of under-16s have been removed, deactivated or restricted since the ban took effect, recent studies and surveys point to the potential ineffectiveness of the measures. In April, the charity organization Molly Rose Foundation conducted a survey of more than a thousand children between the ages of 12 and 15 and found that 61 percent of them still have access to social networks. A recent study by the University of Newcastle claims that more than 85 percent of Australian teenagers under the age of 16 are still active on apps.

This data is confirmed by the e-safety commissioner’s own report from March 2026, which revealed that seven out of ten children who had accounts before the ban still had access to the platforms. The problem lies in the fact that age verification often relies on self-declaration of the date of birth, which children easily bypass by entering false data.

Active investigations and legal challenges

The Australian Internet Safety Agency has confirmed that it is still “actively investigating potential non-compliance” with the law by major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. At the same time, the law itself faces legal challenges. The Digital Freedom Project initiated proceedings before the High Court claiming that the law violates the constitutionally implied freedom of political communication, and Reddit filed a similar lawsuit.

Australia as a leader of the global trend

As the first country with such a comprehensive ban, Australia has become a testing ground, the outcome of which is being closely watched by governments around the world. Growing concern about the impact of social networks on the mental health of adolescents has prompted other countries to consider similar measures. The United Kingdom plans to introduce a ban for under-16s by spring 2027, and Canada is also proposing a similar law. The European Union is considering the possibility of introducing a single ban at the level of the entire Union, while Brazil is more introduced a law according to which the accounts of children under the age of 16 must be linked to the account of a parent or guardian. These efforts signal a global shift towards the systematic regulation of technology companies with the aim of protecting children and young people in the digital environment.