Australian children bypasses social media age limits – Report

• Published On: 20 February 2025 at 19:51

A recent report by Australia's online safety regulator revealed that children in the country can easily circumvent minimum age restrictions imposed by social media platforms.

The findings come ahead of a landmark government ban that will prevent users under the age of 16 from accessing these platforms.

The eSafety Commission's report combined data from a national survey of social media use among children aged eight to fifteen with responses from eight major platforms, including YouTube (Alphabet), Facebook (Meta), and Twitch (Amazon).

In November 2024, Australia passed legislation enforcing a social media ban for children under 16, cementing its position as a global leader in online safety regulation.

The ban is scheduled to take effect at the end of 2025. Most social media companies currently prohibit users under the age of 13 from using their services, but the report suggests that enforcement is weak.

According to the findings, 80% of Australian children aged eight to twelve used social media in 2024, with the most popular platforms being YouTube, TikTok (ByteDance), Instagram (Meta), and Snapchat. While all surveyed services, with the exception of Reddit, required users to enter a date of birth when signing up, they relied solely on self-declaration and did not provide additional verification tools.

"There is still significant work to be done by any social media platform relying on truthful self-declaration to determine age, especially with the upcoming government legislation," Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety Commissioner, said.

YouTube will be exempt from the ban because it allows children under 13 to use the platform through a family account with parental supervision. However, the report discovered that none of the surveyed children aged eight to twelve who had accounts reported being denied access due to their age.

According to the report, 95% of children under the age of 16 used one of the eight social media platforms surveyed. Some platforms, such as TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat, and YouTube, have tools for proactively detecting underage users, but others have yet to implement such measures despite having the technology.

A TikTok spokesperson stated that since early 2023, the company's proactive age detection tools have resulted in the removal of over one million Australian users who were suspected of being underage. Meanwhile, a Meta spokesperson argued that app stores, not individual platforms, should be responsible for enforcing age restrictions.

According to the report, most social media platforms have conducted research to improve their age verification systems, and some have implemented pathways for users to report accounts suspected of belonging to people under the age of 13.