Australia's social media ban is days away – will you be affected?

On Wednesday, December 10, 2025, Australia will enforce its blockbuster social media ban – officially titled "Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024."

This legislation aims to stop children under the age of 16 from accessing a wide range of social media applications, including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Reddit. The ban is the first of its kind to come into effect, although countries such as Denmark, Norway, and France are also considering similar measures.

The bill was passed in November 2024, and states that tech companies that do not take "reasonable steps" to enforce the bill will face fines of up to AU$49.5m (US$32m). Controversially, however, each individual platform will decide how it verifies a user's age, rather than using a centralized system.

The Online Safety Amendment addresses the widely held belief that children's lives are negatively impacted by social media, and that it can impact socialization, self-image, and physical activity, and also make children vulnerable to predators.

However, privacy and internet freedom advocates claim that its implementation may do more harm than good, and that these platforms may become even more harmful for those children that manage to circumvent the ban with tech like VPNs.

What platforms are affected?

Almost all major social media platforms come under the remit of the bill, although gaming platforms and apps are currently unaffected.

This is currently the full list of apps affected:

• Facebook
• Instagram
• TikTok
• Snapchat
• X
• YouTube
• Reddit
• Twitch
• Kick
• Threads

Notable platforms that are unaffected include Discord, WhatsApp, Messenger, and YouTube Kids. Some social media platforms like LinkedIn and BlueSky have been omitted due to being either low risk, low usage in Australia, or being of less perceived interest to children.

However, as reported in the Guardian, this is a "dynamic list," and if the exodus from one app sees a considerable uptake of another, there is scope for that app to be banned as well.

How will the ban be enforced?

It's unclear exactly how the ban will be enforced, although independent government regulator eSafety states that the methods used need to "meet the regulatory requirements and respect privacy laws and digital rights."

The details are made even more woolly due to the fact that each platform is free to decide exactly how it verifies the age of its users. However, most apps have already sent notifications to most users suspected of being under 16. For these users, methods used to verify age will likely include facial scans, government IDs, and bank account information.

Interestingly, Meta is kicking things off early, and on December 4, users it estimates to be under 16 will be blocked. Appeals can be made, in the form of an age-verification check performed by dedicated age-verification software Yoti. However, as reported by ABC Australia, facial recognition checks are less effective at determining the age of people under 16, and are also less effective for people from an Indigenous or south-east Asian background.

Snap, owner of Snapchat, will use "behavioural signals based on account activity" to estimate ages of users, and will use ConnectID and K-ID to perform any check necessary. Both ConnectID and K-ID are private companies.

Other platforms have been less clear about the methods they intend to use, and we may have to wait until December 10 to get a clearer picture.

What does this mean for people over 16?

eSafety's guidelines state that it "does not expect a platform to make every account holder go through an age check process if it has other accurate data indicating the user is 16 or older.

"For example, if someone has had an account since Facebook started in Australia in 2006, Meta could reasonably assume they are older than 16 so no further check is needed."

However, if your account has been flagged but you're over 16, you will need to verify your age. As mentioned above, each platform will have a different method of doing this. Expect facial scans to be a common option, alongside uploading official identification documents like driving licences or passports.

What are the downsides?

Despite the fact that the Online Safety Amendment's intention is good – the protection of children online is paramount – privacy advocates have raised very similar concerns to those associated with the UK's Online Safety Act.

Primarily, this revolves around the mandatory sharing of personal details and documentation, alongside linking a real identity with your account, but also includes concerns over the potential rise of phishing scams.

If you're a user of all the affected apps, it's quite possible that you will be required to send your personal details to five or six different third-party companies to verify your age. If even one of these stores your information after verification and is hacked or compromised in the future, your personal data is at risk.

What's more, YouTube has claimed that these measures will make its platform less safe for teens. It stated that parents will "lose their ability to supervise their teen or tween's account," and that the "rushed regulation that misunderstands our platform and the way young Australians use it."

A rise in risky VPNs

VPNs are often seen as a quick and easy way to circumvent internet restrictions, and it's likely that VPN use will spike when the social media ban comes into force. However, eSafety states in its guidelines that social media platforms are "expected to try to stop under-16s from using VPNs to pretend to be outside Australia."

It's important to note that many fake VPNs exist, and a considerable amount of free VPNs on app stores have very poor privacy credentials. Most will do more harm than good. This is why we rigorously test VPNs, focusing on privacy, logging policies, and general performance. In a landscape where there are so many risky options, being informed is essential.

We rate NordVPN as the best VPN, closely followed by Surfshark and ExpressVPN. All three are safe to use, have been fully audited to prove they do not log your personal data, and have servers in dozens of countries around the world.