Australia’s online safety regulator is considering legal action against major social media platforms, alleging they have failed to adequately prevent children under 16 from accessing their services.
The eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said her office is assessing compliance by platforms including Meta Platforms, Snap Inc., TikTok, and Alphabet Inc., which operates YouTube.
The move follows the implementation of new laws on December 10 banning children under 16 from holding social media accounts.
In her first compliance report since the law took effect, Inman Grant said the regulator had ordered 10 platforms to remove all Australian users below the age threshold. While approximately five million accounts have been deactivated, the report found that many underage users continue to maintain or create accounts and bypass age verification systems.
The regulator expressed “significant concerns” about the compliance of half of the platforms under review, citing what it described as poor enforcement practices. These include allowing unlimited attempts to pass age checks and prompting users to retry verification even after declaring themselves underage.
Under the law, companies found to have failed to take “reasonable steps” could face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars. A decision on whether to initiate legal proceedings is expected by midyear.
Australia’s Communications Minister, Anika Wells, accused some platforms of deliberately undermining the legislation.
“Social media platforms are choosing to do the absolute bare minimum because they want these laws to fail,” she said.
Some companies have pushed back. Meta said it is working to comply but noted that accurately verifying users’ ages remains a challenge across the industry. Snap said it has locked more than 450,000 accounts in line with the law.
Legal experts say the courts will ultimately determine what constitutes “reasonable steps” for compliance, a decision that could set a global precedent as other countries consider similar regulations.
Meanwhile, Reddit has filed a constitutional challenge in Australia’s High Court, arguing that the law infringes on freedom of political communication.
