About 85% of under-16s in Australia said they were still using social media three months after law came into force. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters View image in fullscreen About 85% of under-16s in Australia said they were still using social media three months after law came into force. Photograph: Hollie Adams/Reuters Social media Four in five under-16s in Australia using social media despite ban, study shows Experts say law not enough to stop children accessing harmful content online and more ‘convincing strategy is required’
Prefer the Guardian on Google More than 80% of under-16s in Australia said they were still using social media three months after legislation banning them from it came into force, research shows.
Australia is the first country to ban social media for children. Since December 2025, under-16s have been prohibited from having accounts with many social media platforms including TikTok, X, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat.
But an observational study of 408 12- to 17-year-olds by the country’s University of Newcastle has concluded that Australia’s social media minimum age legislation has resulted in “limited implementation, incomplete compliance, and substantial circumvention of social media restrictions”.
“Overall, we found insufficient evidence to conclude that exposure to the act [of parliament] had any early substantial effects on social media use among adolescents aged under 16 years,” the authors added.
The findings have implications for growing numbers of countries in the process of introducing their own bans. The UK’s proposed social media ban , due to come into force in 2027, would block under-16s from accessing Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, X and Facebook and from livestreaming or communicating with strangers on gaming sites such as Roblox.
But experts and campaigners say the research, published in the BMJ, shows that banning social media is not enough to stop children accessing harmful content online and that a more “convincing strategy is required”.
The Australian study found a minimal reduction in daily social media usage three months after the ban. A major factor in teenagers’ continued use of banned social platforms was inadequate age verification checks. About 85% of teenagers said they were still using social media three months after the ban, with more than half using their own accounts.
Read more Although two-thirds of teenagers in the study said they had to complete age verification checks, only 5% of 12- to 13-year-olds and 11% of 14- to 15-year-olds had to provide a photo of official ID. The two most common checks were asking teens their age and uploading a selfie.
A significant minority of participants said they actively bypassed the age restrictions. About 15% of the 12- to 13-year-olds and 19% of the 14- to 15-year-olds surveyed said they used a fake account, while about 3% said they used a VPN.
The study concluded that the Australian social media ban might be more effective in preventing or delaying access to social media in children under eight, rather than restricting access to adolescents who already use it.
Andy Burrows, the chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation in the UK, said the findings showed that social media bans alone do not keep under-16s off restricted platforms or cut the time teenagers spend using high-risk sites. “Unless ministers have a coherent plan to urgently learn lessons, the UK’s ban will similarly unravel. Parents will be left with fa…