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

Australia on 28 November became the first country to pass legislation banning social media use for children under 16, with tech companies given one year to implement age-verification systems before penalties take effect. The law, which passed the Senate by 34 votes to 19, places responsibility on platforms rather than parents or children and carries fines of up to AUD 50 million for systemic failures to prevent underage access. No exemptions will be granted for parental consent or existing accounts, and the government has committed to a review of the law after it has been in force, though the mechanisms for age verification have not yet been prescribed.

Blanket access restrictions require every user, including adults, to verify their age, raising questions about privacy and the risk that harmful contact migrates to less-regulated platforms outside the ban's scope. The Meta Business Partner Guardii, a world-leading AI online-safety platform backed by Startmate, offers an alternative architecture: real-time detection of grooming, sextortion and child sexual abuse material in direct messages across Instagram, Snapchat, Discord and Roblox, surfacing harmful patterns rather than denying access. By flagging or blocking hostile contact before it reaches a child and alerting a parent, school or professional when a conversation escalates, the approach addresses the underlying harm without requiring universal identity verification or displacing young people to unmonitored channels.