Three months after Australia banned under-16s from social media, more than 85 percent of them were still on it. So the government is doubling the fines. The platforms have not responded.
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The Australian government has announced plans to double the maximum fine for social media companies that fail to enforce the country’s ban on users under the age of 16. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia made the announcement on Saturday night, saying technology companies were not doing enough to comply with the law.
The proposed legislation would increase the maximum fine from 49.5 million Australian dollars to 99 million Australian dollars. In US dollar terms, that is a rise from approximately 34.1 million USD to 68.3 million USD.
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“There are still too many children on social media,” Albanese said. “These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply with our world-leading law.”
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The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that the government intends to legislate the changes before federal parliament’s annual winter break begins on Thursday.
Australia’s under-16 social media ban came into effect in December 2025 under the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024. It requires major platforms to take reasonable steps to block underage account holders. The platforms covered by the law include TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.
The law was described at the time of its introduction as the first of its kind in the world. It places the compliance burden on technology companies rather than on parents or children.
A study published on Thursday by Australia’s University of Newcastle found that the ban has had limited early impact. Researchers tracked 408 adolescents aged 12 to 17 before and three months after the law came into effect.
More than 85 percent of children under 16 said they were still using social media three months after the ban was implemented. The study was published in the British Medical Journal.
Researchers found that children were continuing to access restricted platforms through their own accounts as well as through alternative or shared accounts. Around two-thirds of those surveyed reported encountering age verification measures. The most common methods used by platforms were self-declared age checks and photo-based verification.
In addition to higher fines, Albanese said the proposed changes would give the government’s eSafety Commissioner stronger powers to compel social media companies to provide evidence of the steps they are taking to prevent under-16s from accessing their platforms.
The eSafety Commissioner currently has oversight of online safety issues in Australia but the government says existing powers have not been sufficient to force adequate compliance from the major platforms.
No specific details about the nature of the additional powers have been released beyond the requirement for companies to provide evidence of their compliance measures.
As of Saturday, no public response to the announced fine increase had been issued by TikTok, Meta, X, YouTube, Google, or Snap. The government has not specified a timeline for when the new penalties would take effect beyond the intention to pass the legislation before Thursday’s parliamentary winter break.
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