Australia passes world-first law banning under-16s from social media

On 28 September 2024 the Australian Parliament passed legislation banning social media access for children under 16 years of age, with platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook required to implement age verification or face fines of up to AUD 50 million for systemic breaches. The law takes effect in twelve months and places the onus on platforms to demonstrate reasonable steps to block underage users, with exemptions for messaging and educational services. No penalties apply to young people or their parents for violations.

Blanket age restrictions gate access for compliant users but do not address the behaviour of offenders who migrate to unmoarded messaging channels or misrepresent their identity. They also impose a privacy cost on all users, including adults, who must furnish proof of age to access services. Guardii's approach intercepts harm at the point of contact rather than at the front door: the platform's anti-grooming, anti-sextortion and CSAM detection modules identify coercion, escalation and predatory patterns in real time across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox, blocking hostile contact before it reaches a child and surfacing a young person in crisis to a parent, school or authority without reading every message or requiring universal identity verification.