Australia is raising the cost of breaking its under-16 social media ban, doubling the maximum penalty for platforms to 99 million Australian dollars, or about $68 million.
The government announced the increase after saying social media companies had not done enough to keep children off their services. The previous maximum penalty was 49.5 million Australian dollars.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the tougher fines were aimed directly at platforms covered by the country’s minimum-age law. “It’s clear big tech are not doing enough to comply with the law,” he said. “These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply with our world-leading law.”
The change also gives the eSafety Commissioner more power to demand evidence from companies showing how they are blocking children under 16 from creating accounts. The regulator can also seek compliance evidence from third parties, including age-verification providers and app stores.
Australia’s online safety agency said it is still “actively investigating potential non-compliance” involving Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
The government says more than five million under-16 accounts have been removed, deactivated or restricted since the ban took effect in December.
But not everyone is convinced the ban is working. The Molly Rose Foundation found in April that 61% of more than 1,000 children aged 12 to 15 still had access to social media. A University of Newcastle study later claimed that more than 85% of Australian teens under 16 were still using social media apps.
The new fines put more pressure on global platforms to prove that the ban exists in practice, not just in law.
