Australia is tightening its social media age-ban enforcement as governments around the world watch how platforms handle teen access. This week, the focus is on Meta’s Facebook and Instagram after Canberra said existing penalties and oversight tools have not produced enough change.
Australia proposes higher penalties and broader enforcement powers
Australia’s government announced Sunday that it will introduce draft legislation in Parliament this week to double the maximum fine for platforms that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 from holding accounts, according to a government statement cited by The Associated Press. The proposed maximum penalty would rise to 99 million Australian dollars, or about $68 million, and would apply to platforms including Facebook and Instagram.
Communications Minister Anika Wells said Monday that the tougher approach was needed because the current system was not working as intended after the age restrictions took effect on Dec. 10. In an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corp., Wells said platforms’ resistance to the rules had driven the need for stronger penalties and described the behavior of major technology companies as undermining the scheme.
The amendments would also give Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, stronger powers to demand information and documents from platforms to assess whether they are complying with the law, the government said. Those powers would extend to information from third parties, including age-assurance technology providers, so regulators can test claims about how children under 16 are still getting around the restrictions.
The proposed changes apply across Australia rather than to a single state or territory, and the government has framed them as a response to nationwide compliance concerns. Facebook and Instagram are specifically in focus because eSafety reported in March that seven in 10 children who had accounts on restricted platforms on Dec. 10 remained on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok.
What is confirmed is that Australia’s under-16 social media ban is already in force and that regulators are scrutinizing whether major platforms have taken “reasonable steps” to comply. What is not yet known is how Parliament will amend the bill before any final vote, when the tougher penalties would formally take effect, or whether any one company would face enforcement action first under the proposed higher fine cap.
Australia had initially reported that more than 5 million children’s accounts were removed, deactivated or restricted after the law was enacted. But the later eSafety findings suggested those early numbers did not reflect complete enforcement across the largest platforms, prompting renewed pressure on Meta and other companies covered by the restrictions.
The government’s case for tougher enforcement is rooted in regulator findings and in political concern that the 2024 law lacked enough force to change platform behavior. Parliament passed the initial legislation with overwhelming support in 2024 and gave targeted platforms more than 12 months to prepare, but Wells said she had received monthly updates from eSafety since March and had not seen improvement.
In April, Inman Grant said she was considering court action against Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, alleging they were not taking reasonable steps to exclude children. She also said she was satisfied with progress by X, Kick, Reddit, Threads and Twitch, drawing a distinction between platforms that regulators believe are improving and those still under sharper scrutiny.
For Australian families and users, the immediate change is legislative rather than operational: Parliament is being asked to strengthen penalties and information-gathering powers, not to announce a new age threshold. The practical effect, if passed, would be more pressure on companies to verify ages and remove underage accounts, while the government says the stronger powers are meant to help the eSafety Commissioner hold platforms to account under existing law.