On paper, it’s a great idea. Protecting the children from harmful online content, mental health risks, and addictive algorithms. So what did we do? We spent a year of parliamentary time and projected “Let them be kids” on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. “Yes! This will make those kids go outside” – Someone who works at eSafety probably.
Spoiler alert, the kids did not go outside.
Three months after the law took effect, daily social media use fell from 60 to 58%, need I say more? We did get the world’s first national ban, a Harbour Bridge light show, and a year of parliamentary debate. Massive stuff guys keep up the work (Slight sarcasm). I’m not gonna be a bad sport through all of this, and I should mention that it still went down… as well as parental awareness but hey, it went down.
But what about that 2%? Well they still haven’t found any meaningful change in sport, arts, music, time with family, or community events — every activity the ban was supposed to fix btw. Cyberbullying and image-based abuse complaints? Didn’t drop either.
I’m sorry but The Conversation reported that some platforms still let under 16’s attempt the same age verification over and over until they passed. This isn’t age assurance, this is literally a guessing game to a club of content that could probably ruin brain development.
Yes the internet is full of trolls, bullies, harmful content, and that the algorithm is SO bad for your brain (scrolling as i’m writing), but are these companies even trying? Or are they just doing the bare minimum to not get fined 99 million AUD. And of course eSafety expects platforms to detect and block VPN’s, as TechDirt covered. But that just means the tool you use for privacy is now a compliance problem just because kids think a pickle version of tung tung sahur (AI slop) is funny.
To be honest we all knew this was gonna happen, kids are sneaky. And damn if I couldn’t watch illegal clips of movies with an AI voiceover on top of it I’d find my way around the ban too. Listen, the kids worked this out on the weekend. eSafety took three months and a report.
References and links
Al Jazeera. 2026a. “Most Australian Teens Still Online Three Months after Under-16 Ban.” August 1, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/1/most-australian-teens-still-online-three-months-after-under-16-ban.
Shamim, Sara. 2026b. “Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban Failing, Study Shows: What It Means.” August 3, 2026. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/3/australias-under-16-social-media-ban-failing-study-shows-what-it-means.
Given, Lisa. 2026. “Social Media Giants Are Not Complying with Under-16s Social Media Ban, New Report Finds.” The Conversation, March 31, 2026. https://theconversation.com/social-media-giants-are-not-complying-with-under-16s-social-media-ban-new-report-finds-279555.
Masnick, Mike. 2026. “Australia’s Next Target in the War on Kids Online: Your VPN.” Techdirt, July 20, 2026. https://www.techdirt.com/2026/07/20/australias-next-target-in-the-war-on-kids-online-your-vpn/.
Jahangir, Ramsha, and Mark Scott. 2026. “Early Lessons from Australia’s Teen Social Media Ban for the Rest of the World.” Tech Policy Press, Apr2, 2026. https://www.techpolicy.press/early-lessons-from-australias-teen-social-media-ban-for-the-rest-of-the-world/.
Prime Minister of Australia. 2026. “Stronger Powers and Double the Penalties for World-Leading Social Media Law.” June 28, 2026. https://www.pm.gov.au/media/stronger-powers-and-double-penalties-world-leading-social-media-law.
Cover image: https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/03/13/teens-social-media-ban-kids-still-using-platforms/
Baby scrolling on tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lipi_2020/video/6849762628777086213
Propjection on the Sydney Harbour Bridge: https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/2025-12-10T102358Z_294020908_RC2MDIA3QDXG_RTRMADP_3_AUSTRALIA-SOCIALMEDIA-BRIDGE-1785574903.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80
Pickled Tung Tung Tung Sahur: https://www.tiktok.com/@user8293281453356/video/7648605037777685793
Debbie Choo 
Bethany Miguel 
Tarkyn Sharples 