Oct 7, 2026 · 30 min · 9 segments
Governments on four continents are moving to keep kids under 16 off social media. Some of the reasons are good. The way to enforce it might be worse. In this episode, we walk the whole ledger: where…
Since December 10th of last year in 2025, Australian platforms have been legally required to take reasonable steps to stop anyone under 16 from holding an account.
Fines for the platforms run up to 49.5 million Australian dollars.
Notice who is not on the hook here.
Kids and parents face no penalty at all.
The early numbers look big.
About 4.7 million accounts removed or restricted by mid-January and 100,000 more by March.
Then the regulator, eSafety, published its three-month report and the picture got more complicated.
The use of age-restricted platforms by under-16s dipped from about 86% to about 81.5%.
Account ownership fell from roughly 52% to 42%.
And eSafety's own summary said most kids who had accounts before the law were able to keep them or make new ones.
blaming platforms for failing to put effective age checks in place.
A United Kingdom charity, the Molly Rose Foundation, ran its own research and found about 61% of Australian 12 to 15 year olds with pre-ban accounts still had access to at least one.
Supporters call that a rollout problem.
Critics call it the concept.
Hold that thought because it matters when we get to the verification.
The United Kingdom announced its own under-16 ban in June of 2026.
Reporting this week says it lands by March of next year in 2027.
With the correction that the extra limits for the 16 and 17-year-olds, things like infinite scroll and algorithmic feeds still have no date.
Ofcom has been asked to define what counts as highly effective age assurance, and that report is due by the end of this month.
And critics are already pointing at comments from the Culture Secretary describing the ban as a staging post towards broader regulation.
I'll come back to that.
It was meant to start in September, 2026.
Since December 10th of last year in 2025, Australian platforms have been legally required to take reasonable steps to stop anyone under 16 from holding an account.
Fines for the platforms run up to 49.5 million Australian dollars.
Notice who is not on the hook here.
Kids and parents face no penalty at all.
The early numbers look big.
About 4.7 million accounts removed or restricted by mid-January and 100,000 more by March.
Then the regulator, eSafety, published its three-month report and the picture got more complicated.
The use of age-restricted platforms by under-16s dipped from about 86% to about 81.5%.
Account ownership fell from roughly 52% to 42%.
And eSafety's own summary said most kids who had accounts before the law were able to keep them or make new ones.
blaming platforms for failing to put effective age checks in place.
A United Kingdom charity, the Molly Rose Foundation, ran its own research and found about 61% of Australian 12 to 15 year olds with pre-ban accounts still had access to at least one.
Supporters call that a rollout problem.
Critics call it the concept.
Hold that thought because it matters when we get to the verification.
The United Kingdom announced its own under-16 ban in June of 2026.
Reporting this week says it lands by March of next year in 2027.
With the correction that the extra limits for the 16 and 17-year-olds, things like infinite scroll and algorithmic feeds still have no date.
Ofcom has been asked to define what counts as highly effective age assurance, and that report is due by the end of this month.
And critics are already pointing at comments from the Culture Secretary describing the ban as a staging post towards broader regulation.
I'll come back to that.
It was meant to start in September, 2026.
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