Australia’s world-first social media ban has begun as planned, but expectations remain low. Young people plan to evade it, tech companies oppose it and at least one High Court case is set to challenge it.
More than 1.4 million young Australians are believed to have accounts on the initial platforms captured by the ban, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Threads, X and YouTube.
The eSafety Commissioner has said platforms will be served notices on Wednesday requiring them to provide numbers of active underage users, as well as details on their efforts to verify a user’s age and remove under-16 users.
Platforms not taking “reasonable steps” to enforce the ban face fines of up to $49.5 million, but Communications Minister Anika Wells last week said penalties would be imposed slowly to give companies time to apply the new laws.
Reddit plans legal challenge
Reddit, another of the captured platforms, on Tuesday said it would comply with the social media age ban and make changes to its user experience, but has reportedly enlisted barrister Perry Herzfeld, SC, to mount a legal challenge.
Mr Herzfeld, who has previously brought successful actions against eSafety for rival social media company X, could lodge the lawsuit through the High Court within days, according to the Australian Financial Review.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told the Sydney Morning Herald on Tuesday she was prepared for potential legal challenges by tech companies.
An active High Court challenge to the ban has already been brought by 15-year-olds Macy Neyland and Noah Jones, and backed by NSW Libertarian Party MLC John Ruddick’s Digital Freedom Project, but will not be heard until February.
The suit will argue the ban “robs” young people of their freedom of political communication and risks driving them to less safe online spaces. The NSW, South Australian and Western Australian governments have all said they will seek to be heard in the case to support the ban.
Other platforms respond
Social media platform BlueSky, which is not yet captured by the ban, on Monday announced it would take preemptive steps and block adult content from users aged under 18 and will age-verify new accounts from Wednesday.
BlueSky is one of several platforms that has seen its app downloads spike in the lead up to the arrival of the social media age ban, along with Coverstar, RedNote, Lemon8 and Yope.
Lemon8, which is owned by TikTok parent company ByteDance, has also said it will restrict its use to over-16s from Wednesday.
Ms Wells has said eSafety would watch migration trends to alternate social media spaces and act quickly to designate them as age-restricted if necessary.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has written to state and territory leaders thanking them for their support of the ban, and in a recorded message distributed to schools on Monday told young people “make the most of the school holidays coming up rather than spending it scrolling on your phone”.
An online campaign among teenagers has called for a mass unfollowing of the Prime Minister’s social media accounts from December 10 in protest.
Denmark, France, Italy, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway and Spain are all said to be considering social media age restriction laws based on the outcome of Australia’s legislation, but the US government has voiced strident opposition.
The eSafety Commissioner will assess the efficacy of the ban over the next two years ahead of a statutory review.
With Justin Hendry
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