Australia's under-16 social media law: enacted in 2024, in effect since 2025, tightened in 2026

Since December 10, 2025, providers of age-restricted social media platforms in Australia have had to take reasonable steps to stop Australian children under 16 from having accounts. The duty comes from the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, which amended the Online Safety Act 2021 and was assented to on December 10, 2024. Communications Minister Anika Wells fixed the start date in an instrument dated July 29, 2025. A second law, in force since September 12, 2026, doubled the maximum penalty and gave the eSafety Commissioner new powers to gather evidence.

What the duty requires

The core of the law is one sentence, section 63D: a provider of an age-restricted social media platform must take reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users having accounts with it. An age-restricted user is an Australian child who has not reached 16. The duty covers every account that exists on or after December 10, 2025, including accounts opened earlier. The law does not list the steps. It gives the eSafety Commissioner the task of writing guidelines on taking reasonable steps, and says those guidelines are not legislative instruments.

Privacy limits come with the duty. A platform may not collect government-issued identification, or use an accredited digital ID service, to comply unless it also offers a reasonable alternative way to show a user is not under 16. Personal information collected for the checks may be used only to decide whether someone is under 16, under a few other listed exceptions, or with the person's voluntary, informed and specific consent, and it must be destroyed once used for that purpose. Any other use, or a failure to destroy it, counts as an interference with privacy under the Privacy Act 1988.

Which services it covers

The act names no platforms. A service is covered if its sole or a significant purpose is online social interaction between two or more users, if users can link to or interact with one another, and if they can post material. Since March 26, 2026, amended rules have added a further test: the service must also have a recommender feature, which selects material using information tied to a user's account, or a logged-in feature. Logged-in features are an endless feed, displays of how others engaged with a user's posts, or posts that can be seen only for a limited time, where at least one of them is open only to users with an account.

The rules, first made on July 29, 2025, also exclude whole classes of service. Out of scope are services whose sole or primary purpose is messaging, email, voice or video calling; playing online games with others; sharing information such as reviews, technical support or advice about products and services; professional networking or development; supporting education; or supporting health. Services with a significant purpose of connecting schools with students or their families, or health care providers with their patients, are excluded too. Advertising is ignored when a service's purpose is judged.

How the law took effect and what changed in 2026

The Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2026 doubled the maximum civil penalty for failing to take reasonable steps, and for breaching the ID and information rules, from 30,000 to 60,000 penalty units, for conduct from September 12, 2026. It rewrote the eSafety Commissioner's power to demand information and documents, and doubled the penalty for ignoring such a notice to 1,000 penalty units. It also added a power to summon people and examine them under oath, in private. Failing to comply with a summons, or refusing to answer, can bring up to 12 months in prison or a civil penalty, with an exception for journalists protecting a confidential source. An infringement notice under the duty is set at one-fifth of the maximum penalty a court could impose.

The law's aim and the platforms' view

The act states its object as reducing the risk of harm to under-16s from certain kinds of social media platforms. The platforms' securities filings describe how such laws affect them. Snap, in its report for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, says the Australian act “prohibits social media accounts for minors under 16.” It warns that such laws “may be, or in some cases already have been, subject to legal challenges and changing interpretations,” and that they “may result in restrictions on the use of certain of our products or services by teens” or in “the inability to offer certain products and services to teens.” Reddit's report for the same quarter lists “the Social Media Minimum Age law in Australia” among rules aimed at limiting minors' access to online platforms, and says such regulations “have prevented and could continue to prevent us from making our services available to certain users in certain jurisdictions” and “increase our costs of operations.”

What comes next

The act requires an independent review of the framework within two years of the duty taking effect, that is, by December 10, 2027 (our date). The review must consider whether the privacy protections are adequate, along with any other matters the Minister sets, and its report must be tabled in both houses of Parliament.

Australia is not alone in setting an age. Reddit's report names the EU, Canada, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, the UK and several U.S. states among places that have introduced or are considering minimum age rules for social platforms. The EU's version is the proposed KIDS Act, covered in our explainer.