Overview
- Australia’s law, in force since December 10, requires major platforms to block users under 16 or prove effective age checks, with penalties up to A$50 million.
- Platforms report large takedowns, including roughly 440,000 Snapchat accounts and more than 200,000 on TikTok, though many underage accounts still slip through.
- Teens are evading checks using VPNs, older siblings and cosmetic tricks that exploit facial age-estimation error margins of about one to three years.
- Officials defend the policy as reducing some children’s screen time, even as eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant concedes the rollout is uneven and will take time to stabilize.
- Malaysia will begin a multi-month program on January 1 to test stricter age verification with the MCMC and selected platforms, while EU lawmakers advance a 13-plus registration model with parental consent up to 16 and Meta argues blanket bans are counterproductive.