{"id":264796,"date":"2025-11-05T17:59:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264796\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T17:59:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T17:59:14","slug":"which-social-media-platforms-will-be-forced-to-ban-australian-users-under-the-age-of-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/264796\/","title":{"rendered":"Which social media platforms will be forced to ban Australian users under the age of 16?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine platforms will be included in Australia’s world-first social media ban for children under 16 next month, however the regulator has warned that list is not “static” and could grow.<\/p>\n

The eSafety Commission has put Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and others on notice that they will be an “age-restricted platform” required to comply with the new laws from December 10.<\/p>\n

The platforms could face fines of up to $49.5 million if they fail to take reasonable steps to block young users from this date.<\/p>\n

Here’s a list of the platforms included in the ban and others that are currently exempt.<\/p>\n

Banned: TikTok\"A TikTok logo<\/p>\n

TikTok is used to create, share and discover short videos, owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance.<\/p>\n

There are almost 10 million users in Australia with about 200,000 of those aged 13 to 15, according to the eSafety Commission.<\/p>\n

While TikTok has its own minimum age of 13, the regulator has found it’s one of the most popular platforms for users aged between eight and 12.<\/p>\n

The platform’s Australia policy lead, Ella Woods-Joyce, says TikTok will comply with the ban, but has warned it could have unintended consequences.<\/p>\n

“Experts believe a ban will push younger people into darker corners of the internet where protections don’t exist,” Ms Woods-Joyce said.<\/p>\n

Banned: Instagram\"A Instagram logo<\/p>\n

Instagram is the most used app among Australian teenagers aged 13 to 17, with more than a million monthly active users in this age cohort according to the eSafety Commission.<\/p>\n

The platform is owned by Meta, which also owns Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Messenger.<\/p>\n

Instagram says its “teen accounts” are automatically applied to users aged 13 to 17, which come with built-in limits on who can contact them and filters on “sensitive content”.<\/p>\n

Users in this age cohort also get notifications prompting them to leave the app after 60 minutes of use in one day.<\/p>\n

Despite these measures, Instagram will fall under Australia’s social media ban for under 16s from next month.<\/p>\n

Banned: Snapchat\"A Snapchat logo<\/p>\n

Snapchat is also among the most popular apps for young people, with more than a million of its 8.3 million Australian users aged 17 or under.<\/p>\n

Snapchat is a messaging app which allows users to send images, videos and texts that are only available for a short period once they’re opened.<\/p>\n

Users can also choose to share their location with friends on Snap Map.<\/p>\n

Snapchat is looking to allow underage users to download and archive their data<\/a> before their accounts are disabled.<\/p>\n

Banned: YouTube\"A YouTube logo<\/p>\n

YouTube is one of the most popular online platforms for young Australians, with more than 643,000 users aged 17 and under.<\/p>\n

The regulator found it was the top platform for users ages between eight and 12<\/a>, with more than two-thirds of those surveyed picking it as their platform of choice.<\/p>\n

The Australian government was planning to exempt YouTube from its social media ban, but later backflipped<\/a> on this decision.<\/p>\n

Rachel Lord from YouTube Australia and New Zealand says there’s substantial evidence that YouTube is widely used in classrooms and supported by parents.<\/p>\n

“YouTube is not a social media platform; it is a video streaming platform with a library of free, high-quality content, and TV screens are increasingly the most popular place to watch,” she said.<\/p>\n

YouTube Kids, a filtered version of the platform that allows parents to create accounts for children under 12, will still be allowed.<\/p>\n

Banned: Facebook\"A The Facebook logo.<\/p>\n

While Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube dominate for young social media users, Facebook still has an estimated 455,000 Australian users aged between 13 and 17.<\/p>\n

The platform is owned by Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta and already has a minimum age of 13.<\/p>\n

Meta policy director Mia Garlick recently told a Senate hearing the company would comply with the ban but was still solving “numerous challenges” to identify teenagers’ accounts.<\/p>\n

Facebook’s private messaging service Messenger will still be allowed.<\/p>\n

Banned: X\"A X logo<\/p>\n

Formerly known as Twitter and owned by billionaire Elon Musk, X will fall under the list of banned platforms for under 16s.<\/p>\n

While it’s not among the most popular apps for young users, the eSafety Commission has concerns about the prevalence of “online hate” on the platform.<\/p>\n

In June 2023 the regulator said it had received more complaints about online hate on X in the past 12 months than any other platform, saying X had “dropped the ball on tacking hate”.<\/p>\n

Banned: Reddit\"A Reddit logo<\/p>\n

Messaging board Reddit has just been added to the list of platforms that will face age restrictions from next month.<\/p>\n

Currently the platform bans mature content until a user declares they 18 or over, however there is no age verification system in place according to the eSafety Commission.<\/p>\n

Reddit is the seventh-most visited site in the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Banned: Kick\"A Kick logo<\/p>\n

Along with Reddit, Kick is a new addition to the government’s list of age-restricted platforms.<\/p>\n

Kick is an Australian competitor to video live streaming platform Twitch, where users can watch live video steams covering games, music and gambling.<\/p>\n

The eSafety Commission recently suggested Twitch along with gaming site Roblox could also soon fall under the ban.<\/p>\n

Banned: Threads\"A Threads logo<\/p>\n

Threads is a microblogging platform similar to X, which requires users to have an Instagram account for access.<\/p>\n

As Instagram will be banned for under 16s, Threads also falls under the list of banned platforms.<\/p>\n

To avoid Australia’s new age limit laws, a platform must fall under one of the exempt classes.<\/p>\n

These include messaging, email, voice or video calling, online games, health, education, professional development or services that enable information about products or services.<\/p>\n

The commission has informed several platforms that they don’t currently meet the criteria to fall under the ban.<\/p>\n

“We will continue to take a whole-of-ecosystem approach, but we want to reinforce that just because a service is excluded, it does not mean it is absolutely safe.<\/p>\n

“As parents, we will need to continue being engaged in our children\u2019s online lives.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine platforms will be included in Australia’s world-first social media ban for children under 16 next month, however…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":264797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[16555,63,17652,55394,502,2456,43,1202,38076,44,89091,2579,32847,1314,3069,136487,101,41,39,42,40,13324],"class_list":["post-264796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-apps","tag-australia","tag-ban","tag-banned","tag-children","tag-facebook","tag-headlines","tag-instagram","tag-kick","tag-news","tag-platforms","tag-reddit","tag-snapchat","tag-social-media","tag-teenagers","tag-threads","tag-tiktok","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-x"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=264796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/264796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/264797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=264796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=264796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=264796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}