Australia passes world-first social media ban for children under 16

The Australian Senate passed legislation on 28 November 2024 prohibiting children under 16 from using social media platforms, with penalties of up to 50 million Australian dollars for companies that fail to enforce the age limit. The law, which will take effect in 12 months, places the compliance burden on platforms rather than parents or children and requires tech companies to demonstrate they are taking reasonable steps to prevent underage access, though the specific verification methods have not yet been determined and will be established through a trial process over the coming year.

Blunt age-gate mechanisms restrict access for the entire cohort while displacing determined users and those at highest risk to unmonitored services where no detection operates. Guardii, backed by Startmate and a Meta Business Partner, intercepts grooming, sextortion and abuse in the direct-message layer where harm actually occurs, identifying coercion and escalation patterns in real time across platforms including Instagram, Snapchat and Discord without requiring age verification from every user or blocking compliant adolescents from supervised communication, an approach that protects the vulnerable child rather than removing the entire age group and that functions regardless of which platform an offender selects.