Overview
- Australia’s eSafety regulator, which opened investigations Tuesday, is probing Meta, TikTok, Snap and YouTube for possible failures to block under‑16 accounts and could impose fines of up to A$49.5 million per systemic breach with decisions due by mid‑year.
- Regulators reported 4.7 million suspected under‑16 accounts deleted and 300,000 sign‑ups blocked since December, yet many minors still got on because some apps did not ask for age or let users change birth dates until they cleared 16.
- Meta said age checks have natural error margins and Snap said it is committed to compliance, as officials accused platforms of using tactics that let children keep creating accounts.
- France’s Senate approved an amended bill to bar under‑15s from services a ministry deems harmful and to allow others with a parent’s consent, sending the plan to reconciliation with the National Assembly and casting doubt on a start next school year.
- Austria plans a draft by June 2026 to ban under‑14s with a two‑step online age check, while a Bundestag legal opinion says EU law and the origin‑country rule centered in Ireland leave little room for national bans as roughly 15 countries weigh restrictions.