Australia’s ban – how does it work?published at 06:28 BST
06:28 BST
Image source, Getty Images
Last December, Australia brought in a ban on social media for all under-16s, stopping children from using platforms like Tiktok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat and Threads.
Following the introduction of the ban, under-16s are now not able to set up new accounts and their existing profiles were deactivated.
Australia became the first country in the world to do this.
So, how is the ban enforced?
Children and parents aren’t punished for breaking the rules. Instead, social media companies face fines of up to A$49.5m (US $32m, £25m) for serious or repeated breaches.
The government says firms must take “reasonable steps” to keep children off their platforms, using several age assurance technologies.
These could include government IDs, face or voice recognition, or “age inference”, which analyses online behaviour to estimate a person’s age.
Platforms can’t rely on users self-certifying or parents vouching for their children.
As a reminder, Starmer says the UK would “go further” than Australia with additional measures including curfews for older teenagers and restrictions on AI chatbots.