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The Australian Government's social media ban for under 16's has increased pressure by putting the responsibility of digital safety back on media owners as the government adopts a “tech-neutral” response to navigating age-verification, according to media agencies.
Under the social media ban, the platforms were not mandated to use a specific age-verification approach. Earlier this week Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads called on age-verification to be introduced at an app-store level.
“Meta raises a valid point about implementation,” Hamish Mogan, chief operating officer at Prophet, told AdNews.
“The current approach places the burden of age detection on platforms that have no legal mechanism to verify a minor's age. It's unsurprising that teens have already found workarounds or have migrated to platforms outside the ban's scope.
“Worse, selectively targeting major social media platforms risks pushing young people toward murkier corners of the internet where smaller apps and services lurk that lack the resources, moderation capabilities, or incentive to provide meaningful protections.
“This isn't an unintended consequence but a predictable outcome of an incomplete policy, and one the government needs to address if child safety is genuinely the priority, as I would argue the risks are far greater. A centralised verification point at the app store would certainly create a more consistent standard.”
Industry commentators also condemned the lack of industry standards and expressed concerns over privacy.
“Meta’s response to the social media age ban highlights a critical failure in the current ban legislation: the Australian government’s refusal to mandate a standard on how underage users are denied access to the banned platforms,” Robert Nagy, general manager of product and operations at Yango, told AdNews.
“By legally requiring age checks but abdicating the responsibility of defining "how," policymakers have forced a fragmented, high-risk environment where users must hand over sensitive ID data to dozens of different apps.”
While the gatekeeper approach to implementing age-verification before teens can download these “out-of-reach” social danger-zones has garnered support, other marketers are criticising how Meta hasn’t been more proactive in implementing teen safety measures before the enforced ban.
In the lead-up to the ban, Meta has scaled its teen safety protocols.
In 2021, the company restricted adults from messaging teens they weren’t connected with and defaulted under-16 accounts to private.
In 2022, the company launched a family centre which gave parents control over managing their teens accounts through supervision tools.
In 2023, a “take it down” tool to combat the spread of exploitative imagery along with text-only DM invites to block unwanted media sharing was mandated. It also started trialing privacy-preserving video selfies for age verification purposes.
Late last year, the company also expanded its teen accounts, which officially launched on Instagram in 2024.
“There's a bit of woe is me going on here,” Alfie Lagos, director at Lexlab, told AdNews.
“Meta had years to take teenage safety seriously and make real efforts to block underage users, now they're pointing fingers at the government for not doing it perfectly in month one.
“That said, the government does need to keep engaging with platforms to refine the approach. They've said themselves they're not expecting perfection, so the work isn't done. App store level age verification is an obvious fix and should be enforced. It's strange that we're not starting there to be honest.”
In a statement to the National Press Club, minister of communications, Anika Wells, acknowledged a delay in kicking teens off the apps, particularly due to the addictive nature of algorithms which she called a “design feature”.
Another criticism from Meta about the legislation was that teens will still have access to the harmful content platform restrictions are intended to protect them from in the first place. Platforms like Youtube and Reddit don’t require a log in to access content.
“The premise of the law, which prevents under 16 year-olds from holding a social media account so they aren’t exposed to an “algorithmic experience” is false,” said a Meta blog post.
“Platforms that allow teens to still use them in a logged-out state still use algorithms to determine content the user may be interested in - albeit in a less personalised way that can be appropriately tailored to a person’s age.
“That’s why Meta made significant changes — like Teen Accounts — to protect teens and ensure parents have the tools they need to oversee their families online. Teen Accounts provide built-in protections so teens can enjoy everything they love about our apps — a place to make friends, find community, learn new skills, and express themselves — with the right safeguards in place.
“However, the social media ban restricts teens from these benefits, and will result in inconsistent protections across the many apps they use, including those they are required to use in a logged-out state without the safeguards provided to registered users."
Nagy said the misconception that a ban without standardised verifications equals a safe online space, is creating a “worst-of-both-words” playground for teens who will be pushed towards less–regulated and “open” apps or create fake accounts on the mainstream ones. This will challenge the purpose of teen accounts.
“Meta’s critique exposes a dichotomy of the ban’s impact. In platforms that allow non-logged-in access like YouTube and Reddit, the legislation fails to stop the algorithmic loop; teens simply consume content in a session-based environment without ever logging in and are still targeted by session-based recommendations while being invisible to safety filters,” he said.
“Conversely, in walled gardens like Meta, accounts aren't deleted but stuck in "verification limbo," rendering them inaccessible until ID is provided.
“This creates a worst-of-both-worlds scenario: teens are pushed either toward unrestricted "guest" modes on open apps or to falsified "adult" profiles on closed ones, effectively dismantling the "Teen Account" safety rails.
“While not being able to easily access their own account and use the actual social features of these platforms (such as posting and messaging) provides barrier to entry and will likely reduce underage platform usage, those who do want to use simply content will be doing so in increasingly unsafe environments.”
While the ban was designed to protect mental health in teenagers, it is still in its early stages of development. Effectiveness varies from platform to platform, and without an age-verification benchmark, will continue to have its limitations.
“The logged out loophole is the bigger issue here,” said Lagos.
“My brother has teenage daughters and flagged this with me last week. I was genuinely surprised. Any child or teenager can access YouTube right now without any account and face zero age gates.
“That's a mole that needs the biggest whacking. The same goes for Meta's own platforms as well interestingly. You can access graphic content on Facebook without logging in. It took me about five seconds to find footage of the Bondi Beach shooting on meta.
“If platforms are genuinely concerned about protecting teens from harmful content, the fix is straightforward: default logged out experiences to content appropriate for under 16s until a better solution is found."
Although it has its shortcomings, Lagos does credit the ban and said it is a step forward, encouraging the major players to keep developing their systems and work with the regulation.
“Before anyone starts getting hurt feelings about a messy rollout, remember what we're actually dealing with here,” he said.
“Search for the Hangman Challenge (also known as black out challenge) if you want proof of the clear dangers of unfettered social media access for children. It's a trend involving disturbing videos disguised as children's content that encourage minors to perform life threatening self harm acts under the guise of a game.
“This is about saving kids' mental health and lives. The platforms had their chance to self regulate and failed. A messy ban that protects even some children is better than a polished system that protects none.”
He said that the government needs to "keep whacking", and platforms need to "stop whinging and start innovating."
The dangers of teens still accessing harmful algorithms via "logged-out" loopholes is a wide-spread concern across the industry, with Mogan calling it a "challenge" for platforms who have the responsibility of taking reasonable action, but are lacking the practical enforcement.
“The point about logged-out algorithmic experiences is also worth noting: If the legislation's intent is to protect young people from algorithmically-curated content, allowing them to consume platforms in logged-out mode still exposes them to behavioural targeting, just with fewer age-appropriate safeguards,” said Mogan.
“That said, while the implementation has clear gaps, platforms do have a duty of care to maximise protections for young users and have the means and capabilities to do a better job in this area. Finding the right balance between practical enforcement and genuine accountability remains the challenge."
Meta has announced they are introducing AgeKeys, where users set up a verified age-key kept on their device and can share verified age signals across multiple participating platforms in a privacy-preserving manner.
AgeKeys are verified through government-issued ID, financial information, face estimation, or national digital wallets and the company plans to roll them out across its apps in Australia and other markets in 2026.
More than 550,000 underage accounts across Facebook, Instagram and Threads had also been blocked between December 4 and 10.
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