Australia pioneered the implementation of nationwide social media bans for users under a certain age, enacting the law in December. Four months later, how effective is the ban proving? Not very, according to a new study.
Australia's world-first social media ban for users under 16 is not keeping children off the platforms as much as the government had hoped.
A new study by the UK-based suicide prevention charity Molly Rose Foundation (MSF) found that 61%, or three in five, Australians aged 12-15 who had accounts on platforms before the ban came into effect still have access to one or more accounts.
Most of the major platforms retain the majority of their underage users. 53% of former TikTok users can still access their accounts, as do 53% of former YouTube users and 52% of former Instagram users.
Shortly after the law was implemented in Australia, there were reports of teenagers bypassing facial age verification scans by making unusual facial expressions, using makeup or VPNs. There were also reports of some bypassing age verification checks by using other faces from friends and family members.
The MSF report found that in the majority of cases where children still had access to their social media accounts, the platforms failed to identify and remove accounts under the age of 16, meaning most children did not have to resort to alternative solutions.
Although the press releases will range from very select to rare, I said I'd pass...because sometimes the editors hide.
