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The federal government's social media ban for children under 16 is a wakeup for marketers and a world-first shift in the digital landscape.
Some researchers believe it could drive teens to the dark web or make them feel more isolated.
But the move is a winner politically. Research by YouGov found that 77% of Australians back the ban.
“Our poll shows strong support across all aspects of the government’s proposed social media regulations,” Paul Smith, director of public data at YouGov said. “Australians are also overwhelmingly in favor of stronger penalties for companies that do not comply with Australian laws.”
The Online Safety Amendment Bill was introduced to protect young people during critical stages of their development.
Xiaofeng Wang, principal analyst at Forrester, said the legislation represents a major shift in the digital landscape, requiring adaptation from both social media platforms and marketers.
“For social media platforms, this law means significant operational changes, including overhauling user registration and monitoring processes to ensure compliance and avoid fines,” she said.
“Brands and marketers will need to adjust their strategies. With younger users restricted, they may need to focus on older demographics or explore alternative platforms. This could involve revising content strategies and finding new marketing channels.”
Wang said other countries have similar, less stringent, restrictions, but Australia has the world’s first absolute age limit regulation on social media usage.
“France requires age verification and parental consent for users under 15, Germany mandates parental permission for users aged 13-16, and China limits users under 14 to 40 minutes of daily usage on platforms like Douyin,” she said.
Wang said enforcing this law is challenging.
“Social media companies must implement accurate age verification systems, raising privacy concerns,” she said.
“Ensuring consistent enforcement across platforms and jurisdictions is also complex.”
The School of Law at Western Sydney University (WSU) has put together a working party to investigate harms that may result from the ban.
Associate professor Elen Seymour, Dr Jacinta Sassine, Dr Kaitlyn Poole, Dr Meda Couzens and Dr Sarah Hook were “appalled” that the bill was passed without considering the “under-explored unintended consequences”.
“The public was given 24 hours to comment on the draft and the committee only held a three-hour meeting before it was rushed through,” they told AdNews.
“Rushing this Bill through parliament, in defiance of the democratic process, delegitimises the Act.
“We are also very concerned that yet again, the voices of under 16-year-olds were not heard in any meaningful way.”
WSU said “compliance” and the means of achieving it has been left to the individual platforms, but age assurance will likely involve a combination of private documents such as driver’s licences, biometric information and algorithmic stalking of posts.
The research group also said the law will not stop young people from being exposed to harmful content but rather only stops them from holding social media accounts.
“The government has commendably intended to combat bullying with this legislation, but by allowing online gaming and messaging apps to be excluded, this purpose has been considerably undermined,” the research group said.
“The net effect is that this Act does not in fact protect vulnerable young people, it stops them from finding supportive communities online.”
According to WSU, support for the social media ban has soared because most of society agrees that children are vulnerable online, but many have failed to consider the privacy issues and potential for data breaches.
“What people may not understand is that this Act does not block under 16s from being online but rather gives social media platforms a duty to increase their surveillance on everyone who uses their platform,” the group said.
“The ability to be anonymous - an important right for people such as domestic violence victims, and LGBTQIA+ communities that don’t feel safe publicly naming themselves - will now be impossible.
“It also raises a lot of privacy issues… something that will give little comfort to Australian citizens who are the victims of identity fraud.”
The research group believes the new law “burdens freedom of political communication” and demeans teens’ contribution to social and political life.
“Children in Australia have human rights, including a right to be heard, and to express themselves. They also have a right to have a say in what constitutes their best interests,” the party said.
“The Government had a real opportunity here to listen to young people – an opportunity they ignored at their own peril since the 2025 federal election is just the beginning of the demographic shift away from Boomers to younger generations who may not be impressed with a government that bans technology without consultation in the name of protecting ‘youth’.”
Australian and New Zealand Children’s Commissioners Guardians and Advocates (ANZCCGA) also has “grave concerns about the rushed process and lack of clarity” surrounding the social media ban.
The group said young people are worried about how the restrictions will affect them and want to offer ideas and solutions, but the announcement has left insufficient time for thorough consultation.
Jodie Griffiths-Cook, ACT children and young people commissioner at ANZCCGA, said respecting and protecting children's rights, safety and wellbeing in the digital environment is crucial to empowering our future generations.
“Despite the extensive media coverage and public debate surrounding the social media ban for children under 16 years, a significant oversight prevails: the rights and views of children and young people have often been marginalised in this discussion,” she said.
“While we commend efforts that seek to protect the rights of Australian children and young people, there has not been enough consideration for the adverse impacts this decision could have on already marginalised groups such as LGBTQIA+ children and young people and those living in regional and remote areas, many of whom rely on social media for support, social connection, and learning.”
Meanwhile, Swinburne neuropsychologist Professor Susan Rossell was one of 120 mental health clinicians and experts who called on the federal government for changes to social media for Australian children.
Her research group found that 61.7% of Australians aged 12-18 feel dissatisfied with their body due to social media and 80% thought platforms needed to do more to help young people have a more positive body image.
“I really do think that this is an important decision in the protection of our children’s mental health,” she said.
“While there are many factors that contribute to the development of an eating disorder, body dissatisfaction is the highest modifiable risk factor and this dissatisfaction has been shown to be negatively impacted by social media use”.
“The devastating figures highlight how prevalent this issue is in today’s society. While social media isn’t solely responsible for growing body image concerns, it certainly plays a part.”
Zoe Kalar, founder and CEO at WeAre8 Social Media, said the pioneering age limit laws are necessary, but “the reality is that this will encourage a generation of young people to lie about their age and attempt to cheat the system”.
She believes the critical issues are safety and eliminating the addictive algorithms so social media is healthy for everyone.
“We need social technology to ensure young people and all people are protected from toxic content and abuse in all forms while shielding them from the algorithms that fuel anxiety and encourage endless scrolling,” Kalar told AdNews.
“There are a lot of positive capabilities of social technology and we need to elevate the young voices, not suppress them. Helping them feel seen, heard and valued in a safe inspiring social home is the solution.”
Platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit and X, will have until late 2025 to prevent under 16s from creating accounts, with fines of up to $50 million for systemic breaches.
Messaging services, online gaming and health and education related services, such as Headspace, Google Classroom and YouTube, will be exempt from the ban.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram said in a statement that it respects the laws decided by the Australian Parliament.
“However, we are concerned about the process which rushed the legislation through while failing to properly consider the evidence, what industry already does to ensure age-appropriate experiences, and the voices of young people,” a Meta spokesperson said.
“Last week, the Parliament’s own committee said the ‘causal link with social media appears unclear,’ with respect to the mental health of young Australians, whereas this week the rushed Senate Committee report pronounced that social media caused harm.”
The social media giant raised concerns over “the lack of evidence underpinning the legislation” and how it will be implemented.
“The task now turns to ensuring there is productive consultation on all rules associated with the bill to ensure a technically feasible outcome that does not place an onerous burden on parents and teens and a commitment that rules will be consistently applied across all social apps used by teens,” Meta’s spokesperson said.
“One simple option is age verification at the operating system and app store level which reduces the burden and minimises the amount of sensitive information shared.”
Snapchat said it will “comply with any applicable laws and regulations” but also raised concerns.
“Alongside numerous academics and experts including the Privacy Commissioner and the Human Rights Commissioner, we have raised serious concerns about the legislation,” a Snap spokesperson said.
“While there are many unanswered questions about how this law will be implemented in practice, we will engage closely with the Government and the eSafety Commissioner during the 12-month implementation period to help develop an approach that balances privacy, safety and practicality.”
Meanwhile, TikTok Australia said the safety of its young users is a “top priority”.
“We will continue to work hard to enforce our high safety standards,” a TikTok spokesperson said.
“Moving forward, it is important that the Government works closely with industry to fix issues created by this rushed process.
“We want to work together to keep teens safe and reduce the unintended consequences of this bill for all Australians.”
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