Overview
- eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman‑Grant said Tuesday that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube are under investigation for potential breaches of Australia’s ban on accounts for children under 16.
- The watchdog’s first compliance report found major gaps such as letting children retry age checks until they pass, prompting under‑16 users to re‑verify, weak sign‑up checks, and hard‑to‑use reporting paths for underage accounts.
- Despite early removals of about 4.7 to 5 million accounts, a survey found 31% of parents said their child still had an account, about 70% of prior users kept access on Instagram, Snapchat or TikTok, and about half stayed on YouTube.
- eSafety said it is moving from monitoring to enforcement, gathering evidence for possible court action, and expects to decide on any penalties by mid‑year under a regime that allows fines up to A$49.5 million.
- Communications Minister Anika Wells urged the watchdog to throw the book at systemic failures, Meta called online age checks an industry‑wide challenge, Snap said it locked 450,000 accounts, and Reddit’s High Court challenge and interest from countries like France and Indonesia point to wider stakes.