Australia's under-16 social media prohibition falters at the initial age verification, according to testers.

      According to testers who assisted the Australian government in crafting its age-check system, the world’s first national prohibition on social media for those under 16 is struggling at the outset. In a follow-up study reported by Reuters, the team created 50 accounts across nine of the ten platforms impacted by the law, stating the account holder’s age as 16, and none of the platforms requested verification of age.

      This discovery comes in light of a scheme that only took effect on December 10, 2025, highlighting a gap that regulators have largely ignored. The discussions, and much of our enforcement reporting, have focused on the precision of photo-based age estimation. The testers assert that the issue arises earlier, during the initial vetting stage intended to identify potential minors for further examination.

      This stage, which estimates a person’s age range based on their general online behavior, appears to be missing young users completely. Andrew Hammond, a director at Melbourne-based testing firm KJR, which conducted the government’s initial age-assurance trial in 2024 and 2025, expressed it clearly.

      “You should be prompted to prove your age, and not once have we been asked to confirm our age or use age-assurance methods,” he informed Reuters.

      The 50 test accounts remain active across Meta’s Instagram and Facebook, Snap’s Snapchat, TikTok, and Alphabet’s YouTube, among others. Only one service, the Australian live-streaming platform Kick, denied account creation without age verification.

      This exception is significant, indicating that age checks are technically feasible when a platform opts to enforce them. The outcome also highlights the compliance concerns that prompted the regulator to issue warnings to Meta, TikTok, and YouTube earlier this year.

      Australia’s law prohibits children under 16 from maintaining accounts on ten specified platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X, YouTube, Kick, and Reddit, and mandates companies to take “reasonable steps” to prevent their access.

      eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, the nation’s online safety regulator, mentioned that platforms eliminated millions of under-16 accounts in the lead-up to the deadline. The Act imposes penalties on companies that consistently fail to enforce the ban, with fines reaching up to A$54.6 million (approximately $36 million), and the government has proposed legislation to nearly double that limit and empower eSafety to request evidence from age-assurance providers and app stores, beyond just the platforms. These expanded powers, however, have stalled in the Senate.

      KJR’s initial trial, which assessed age-assurance tools with over 1,000 Australians, concluded last year that the technology could be effective if carefully chosen and applied. Yet, some advisers cautioned at that time that the trial did not test for real-world circumvention, such as a 14-year-old entering a false birth date.

      That caution now seems prescient. A separate study reported in late June indicated that over 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using social media three months after the ban started, most by employing the classic tactic of claiming to be over 16.

      Regulators in other regions are observing closely. The EU has been testing its own age verification application, while the UK, Norway, and others are considering similar restrictions. If the first country to implement such measures cannot navigate the sign-up process, it presents a concerning scenario for others following suit.

      eSafety has positioned enforcement as a long-term effort rather than a quick fix, noting that it is examining the systems of the specified platforms for persistent failures rather than isolated incidents.

      The companies assert that they are gradually integrating age assurance into the sign-up process and enhancing detection over time. However, based on the evidence from the 50 accounts that bypassed the checks, that development still appears incomplete.