Australia's social media ban, one year on

On 10 December 2026, Australia's social media age restrictions turn one. The short version: fewer under-16s have accounts than before, but many still do. eSafety is investigating five big platforms, and in September Parliament gave eSafety stronger powers and raised the maximum fine. For families, the most useful lesson from the first year is about conversations, not settings.

What the figures show

• Platforms removed access to 4.7 million under-16 accounts across Australia by mid-December 2025, according to eSafety.
• Fewer children hold accounts, but not by as much as many parents hoped. eSafety's own research, following more than 4,000 families, found the share of under-16s with an account on an age-restricted platform fell from 52.4% to 42.1% in the first three months.
• Most who had accounts kept them or made new ones. The same research says most under-16s with accounts before the ban had either kept them or created new ones three months in. eSafety names platforms' failure to use effective age checks as the main reason.
• Fewer children feel left out. The share who felt they were missing out by not having social media fell from 43.3% to 36.3%.

What eSafety has done about it

In March 2026 eSafety said it had "significant concerns" about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube, and moved into what it called an enforcement stance. Among the problems it described:

• letting children retry the same age check until they got a 16+ result;
• reporting pathways that were hard to use;
• not doing enough to stop new under-16 accounts.

Those investigations are ongoing.

In September 2026 Parliament passed a law strengthening enforcement. eSafety can now demand information from more parties, including age-check providers and app stores, and question people directly. The maximum penalty went up too: eSafety now puts it at up to $109.2 million per platform.

What hasn't changed

• There are still no penalties for children or parents. The obligation sits with the platforms.
• Messaging and gaming services are still outside the ban. eSafety lists WhatsApp, Messenger, Discord, Roblox and Steam among the services it doesn't consider age-restricted. It also says that could change if a service's main purpose changes. Our guide on what the ban doesn't cover goes through it.
• The list of covered platforms can change. eSafety's list includes Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube and Facebook, and it updates the list as services change. Our app-by-app guide keeps track.

The finding that matters most for parents

One result from eSafety's research stood out to us. Parents' awareness of what their children are doing on social media has dropped, particularly for girls and for children aged 10 to 12. eSafety's own advice is to keep talking, even with the restrictions in place.

That fits what we hear from other parents. When the law says "no", it's easy to assume the question is settled. But a child who has kept an account, or moved to a group chat or a game, is now less likely to mention it. If anything goes wrong there, they may worry they'll get in trouble for being somewhere they "shouldn't" be.

So the most useful thing to say this summer is the simplest: "If something online upsets you, tell me. You won't be in trouble for where it happened." eSafety says the same thing: a child reporting harm won't get into trouble for being on a platform.

What happens next

• eSafety's research runs for two years, and it says more findings will come out through 2026, 2027 and 2028.
• The law requires the Minister to start an independent review within two years of 10 December 2025, so by December 2027.
• Decisions on enforcement against the five platforms are still to come.