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The Australian Government is the first to introduce a social media law that mandates a minimum age of 16 years for children to have access to certain social media platforms. This ban comes into effect on the 10th of December 2025.
What is a Social Media Ban?
The social media ban is a regulation that restricts certain users, particularly minors, from accessing certain social media platforms. Social media companies with restricted platforms (Apps) will need to remove or deactivate accounts for those aged under 16. This is also referred to as “social media minimum age obligation” (SMMA obligation).
Why is the Social Media Ban being Introducted?
The social media ban is being put in place to protect young Australians who are at their critical stage of development from increased risks and pressures that are associated with exposure to social media. Social media platforms have design features that encourage users to spend more time onscreen, and these features can impact your health and wellbeing by making young people:
- Feel stressed about keeping up with the latest posts.
- Get less sleep.
- Struggle to switch off and concentrate on other things.
- Constantly compare themselves with other people.
- Feel distressed when exposed to negative, upsetting, or manipulative content in their feed.
“It’s More of a Delay Than a Ban!”
While most social media platforms currently have a minimum age of 13 for account holders, delaying account access until 16 will give young people more time to develop important skills and maturity. This will give kids extra time to learn about online risks and harm, as well as hot o deal with them and stay safe. It creates a breathing space to build digital literacy, critical thinking, impulse control, and greater resilience.
Law universally applied to under 16s would solve the problem of social exclusion where young people themselves would not fell they are missing out. It will also be remove the dilmma faced by parents of whether to allow access to their children.
Which Social Media Platforms Will Be Banned?
Restrictions will apply to social media platforms that meet three specific conditions:
- Significant or sole purpose of the platform is to enable online social interaction between two or more end-users.
- The platform allows end-users to link to, or interact with, some or all the end-users.
- The platform allows end users to post material on the platform.
Platforms included in the restriction list as of 5th November 2025:
- Kick
- Snapchat
- Threads
- TikTok
- X (formerly known as Twitter)
- YouTube
Platforms excluded from the restricted list as of 5th November 2025:
- Discord
- GitHub
- Google Classroom
- LEGO Play
- Messenger
- Roblox
- Steam and Steam Chat
- YouTube Kids
How Will the Social Media Ban Work in Australia?
Because it’s more a social media delay rather than a ban, there will be no penalty for under 16s who access age restricted platforms, nor will there be any for their parents or carers.
However, the responsibility lies with social media companies to take reasonable actions to prevent under 16s from having access to social media accounts that are age restricted. Penalty of up to $49.5 million AUD may apply to companies for not doing so.
From 10 December 2025, age-restricted platforms will be expected to take steps to:
- Locate and deactivate or remove existing social media accountss that are held by under 16s.
- Prevent under 16s from opening a new social media account.
- Prevent workarounds that under 16s can use to bypass restrictions.
- Have a process to correct errors where someone’s account is mistakenly missed or included in restrictions.
- Allow people to report underage social media accounts or request a review on an account that has been age restricted by mistake.
To check the age of an individual, there are a range of systems and technologies available that can be used by the social media platforms. These systems and technologies can make this possible while keeping user privacy. Some are currently being used by social media platforms at the point of account sign up or later and it will be up to each platform to decide which one to use.
But the platforms will have to take steps for under 16s trying to bypass the law. For instance, the platforms will have to check the date of birth that someone provides; the use of fake identity documents; AI tools; and VPNs to pretend they are outside of Australia.
Social media platforms are not expected to make every account holder go through an age check process if it has other accurate data indicating the user is 16 or older. For example, if someone has had a Facebook account created in Australia since 2006, Meta could reasonably assume they are older than 16 and no further checks need to be conducted.
According to the SMMA legislation, social media platforms are prohibited from using government issued ID as the only option to verify a users age.
How to Get Ready for the Change?
Young People:
Accounts of under 16s will either be removed or deactivated by social media platforms after 19 December 2025. You should not rely on the platforms giving you these options. It is best practice to assume an account removal and plan accordingly.
Steps to take before 10 December 2025:
- Screenshot or download your favourite posts, chats, photos, or videos (the platforms should provide you with instructions on how to do this, or check out this eSafety Guide for help).
- Note down your favourite influences or news feed’s profile name and find alternative ways to see their posts and stay informed, for example, bookmark their website or follow them on age-appropriate platforms that they use.
- You can download the eSafety 8-step action plan to help you prepare yourself for the restrictions.
- It’s a big change, if you are strugglign to cope with this change, help is available:
- Reach out to trusted adults that you feel comfortable talking to about this change, help is available.
- If you don’t have anyone close you can talk to, contact Kids Helpline, eheadspace, Beyond Blue, or other free or confidential counselling or support services.
- Go on to the form set up by Beyond Blue for young people, where you can safely discuss your feelings about the social media age restriction.
Remember, you will still have access to publicly available content that doesn’t require logging into an account.
If you are worried or confused with the process of backing up your online social media platform data (posts, chats, photos, and/or videos), our team at Little Computer People can safely back up or transfer your data across devices or storage platforms.
Contact Little Computer People at any of our three branches in:
Call us at: 1300 885 218
Visit our website for more information: www.littlecomputerpoeple.com.au
Parents and Carers:
This restriction on social media platforms can be challenging for kids. This is where parents and carers are most needed to help kids transition through the change as smoothly as possible.
Parents and carers can help by:
- Talking to children calmly and openly ab out the age restrictions. Understand and guide them through the change. eSafety has a sample conversation starters guide for parents to follow if needed.
- Creating a safe space for under 16s to be heard, supported and empowered to make ‘switching off’ age-restricted social media accounts as stress-free as possible. For example, a walk or car ride can be a great time to chat because it feels less intense than when you’re looking directly at each other.
- Keeping in mind the child’s age, developmental sta ge, emotional readiness and individual needs while talking to them about the age restriction.
- If you are caring for children of various ages you may need to handle the issue differently. Discussing it with everyone together and setting shared expectations can be helpful, or you may find it better to have separate conversations.
- If things do not work well in the first conversation, it is OK to try again later. Lots of little chats are often more effective than one big conversation which might be overwhelming for your child.
- Using parental control can help keep children safe online by restricting their devices access to harmful content, managing time spent online, and limiting who they can communicate with.
- Show them where to look for free, confidential services like Kids Helpline, eheadspace, and Beyond Blue.
- Organising joint activities or events to help relieve the boredom for under 16s withdrawing from social media accounts.
- Talk to other parents in similar situations for advice or seek professional help if needed, for you or your child.
To further prepare and understand the age restrictiopn changes, parents and carers can join one of the 30 minute webinars by eSafety for tips and resources to support your child.
As a final tip, remember that setting up parental controls can be part of general computer maintenance. The next time you get your computer repaired or serviced from a trusted local computer repair service like Little Computer People, you can ask them to configure a parental control system for your whole family as part of the service.