The ban on social media for people under 16 in Australia has begun to take effect and quickly created a strong reaction when many teenagers publicly showed off their circumvention of the law, causing platforms and governments to face pressure to regulate.
The ban has received support from major parties and most parents, but the implementation is expected to take time for platforms to authenticate and handle accounts.
Australian social media sites are flooded with comments from people claiming to be under 16 years old, including a comment on the Prime Minister's TikTok account saying "I'm still here, wait until I'm old enough to vote".
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese believes that this is an intervention to protect young people from the risk of mental health caused by bullying, physical problems or addictive algorithms. He said on television that some teenagers who are showing off have not had their accounts removed, but that action only helps platforms identify and handle it.
The Australian government said TikTok has recorded about 200,000 disabled accounts since the order took effect, while many content creators in Australia have sharply reduced their followers and views.
Under the new regulation, 10 major platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat must stop users under 16 years old, if they violate, they can be fined up to 49.5 million AUD (33 million USD). Communications Minister Anika Wells said the eSafety regulatory agency will require platforms to report the number of accounts under 16 years old before and after the time of application.
Australia's application of this model has attracted global attention. Some foreign politicians and experts have expressed support, while many believe that the ban could cause children to access uncontrolled online areas. UNICEF warns that age regulations cannot replace the requirement to improve platform design and content censorship mechanisms.
Many platforms that are not banned quickly increased their rankings on the download rankings. Lemon8 applies a minimum age of 16, while the Yope application records rapid growth with about 100,000 users in Australia, half of whom are over 16 years old. Google search data shows that demand for IP VPNs in Australia skyrocketed to a 10-year high just before the law took effect.
Meta expressed concern that the ban could make the law inconsistent and unsafe for children, while TikTok and Snap declined to comment on the implementation.
Prime Minister Albanese said he believed the ban would improve learning outcomes and behavior due to reduced time to look at equipment.
