Australia to strengthen child social media ban despite limited impact

Australia's prime minister said on Friday he was keen to ensure the country's social media ban for children was as strong as possible, as a new study found that the measure – the first of its kind and now six months old – had little impact on teen use.

The government plans to stress-test the law, which bans platforms like Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube from giving under-16s accounts.

"What we want to do is to make sure that the laws are as strong as possible and that they will withstand any legal challenges which are made," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

He added that one key focus would be making sure that the eSafety Commission, the country's internet regulator, was sufficiently empowered to do the job.

Albanese did not give further details about what steps the government would take, and the regulator declined to comment.

Australia's groundbreaking experiment is being closely watched as countries around the world seek to emulate it amid concerns about youth mental and physical health. Britain, for example, this month announced planned restrictions that go further, as gaming and live-streaming platforms will also be affected.

The eSafety Commission and Communications Minister Anika Wells have said they are preparing legal action against multiple platforms, which face a maximum fine of 49.5 million Australian dollars ($34 million) if they are found to have systemically failed to uphold the ban.

Reddit has launched a High Court challenge to the ban, which is still in preliminary hearings.

When Australia's ban went live last December, there were early reports that it had shut down millions of accounts, but parents have said, and studies have shown, that teen social media use has changed little.

A paper published in the British Medical Journal this week said 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using social media three months after the ban took effect, according to a study of 408 adolescents.

Two-thirds of underage users stayed online by self-declaring an age over 16 or posting a selfie that the platform accepted as showing they were over 16, the paper said.

"Despite the intent of the (ban) to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents," it said.