The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 is an Australian act of parliament that prohibits minors under the age of 16 from holding an account on certain social media platforms. It is an amendment to the Online Safety Act 2021 and was passed by the Parliament of Australia on 29 November 2024. It imposes monetary penalties on social media companies that fail to take reasonable steps to prevent minors under 16 who are located in Australia from having accounts on their services.
The legislation allows the government to determine which social media platforms must ban age‑restricted users and proclaim a date for the commencement of the ban, with those provisions taking effect on 10 December 2025. Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Threads, Twitch, Kick, and YouTube were age‑restricted on 10 December 2025, with the possibility that more platforms may be added. It was the first such legislation to be passed in the world.
The act is being challenged in the High Court by the Digital Freedom Project.
Background The ban on access to social media by young people by the federal government originated in November 2023, when shadow communications minister David Coleman introduced a private member's bill requiring the government to conduct a trial for age-verification technology on pornography and social media platforms. The bill did not succeed. The Albanese government funded a trial ban in the 2024 Australian federal budget, after the South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas had announced his government's intention to ban under-14s from social media. His wife had requested that he read The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt and take action to address the impact of social media on the mental health of children. The couple have four young children, and the premier thought that government should play a part in helping parents to regulate use of social media by their children at home. In June 2024, opposition leader Peter Dutton pledged that a Coalition government would implement a ban on social media for under-16s within 100 days of taking office. In July 2024, prime minister Anthony Albanese announced the government would introduce legislation banning under-16s from social media.
Malinauskas, in the meantime, had contacted former High Court chief justice Robert French, who agreed to look at the issue, and in September 2024 handed the premier a 267-page proposal, which he dubbed a "Swiss Army knife" rather than a machete, to adjust to social media's "changing landscape and its complexity". The leaders of other states and territories gave their support to Malinauskas's idea, and he took the French report to National Cabinet to collaborate with chief ministers, premiers, and the prime minister. In early September 2024, South Australia proposed legislation intended to ban users under the age of 14, and to require parental consent for 14- and 15‑year‑olds. Later in September, prime minister Albanese announced that his government intended to introduce legislation to set a minimum age requirement for social media.
In November 2024, the federal government indicated their intention to engage the Age Check Certification Scheme following a tender process for an age assurance technology trial. The Albanese government's proposed ban was supported by the governments of every state and territory. Albanese described social media as a "", and said "I want people to spend more time on the footy field or the netball court than they're spending on their phones", that family members are "worried sick about the safety of our kids online", and that social media "is having a negative impact on young people's mental health and on anxiety".
The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 was introduced into parliament by minister for communications Michelle Rowland on 21 November 2024, passing both houses on 28 November 2024.
Community support swelled after stories of parents who had lost their children to suicide after being bullied on social media were published. Albanese himself was moved by a personal letter received from Kelly O'Brien, whose 12-year-old daughter Charlotte had taken her own life due to bullying at school. An event took place at the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in September 2025 at which a mother spoke of her daughter's suicide as "death by bullying ... enabled by social media". The speech won support from world leaders in Greece, Fiji, Tonga, and the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen.
The opposition organised an open letter signed by 140 experts who specialise in child welfare and technology. The opposition was concerned about the invasion of privacy that will occur with the introduction of identification-based age checks. An advocacy group for digital companies in Australia called the plans a "20th Century response to 21st Century challenges". A director of a mental health service voiced concerns, stating that "73% of young people across Australia who accessed mental health support did so through social media". The government specified in the legislation that an identity document cannot be the only of verifying an account holder's age.
Legislative history On 21 November 2024, the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 was introduced into the federal parliament by the minister for communications, Michelle Rowland. The bill was then referred to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee of the Senate, which reported its findings on 26 November after having received 15,000 submissions. There was a 24‑hour period for submissions to be made for or against the bill, with the committee stating "due to the short timeframe of this inquiry, the committee would appreciate submissions being limited to 1–2 pages."
House of Representatives On 27 November, the House of Representatives passed the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 by a vote of 101 in favour, 13 against. The governing Labor Party, all of the Coalition except for Bridget Archer, and four independent MPs voted in favour of the bill. Six independent MPs, all the Greens, Rebekha Sharkie, and Bob Katter voted against.
Senate The Senate passed the bill on 27 November 2024, including government amendments, by a vote of 34 in favour, 19 against. The entire crossbench voted against the legislation, along with Alex Antic and Matt Canavan of the Liberal and National Party, respectively. The House of Representatives then passed the bill again with these amendments.
The legislation was the world-first social media ban for youth.
Implementation Social media companies received a transition period of one year after the legislation is enacted to introduce reasonable controls preventing minors under the age of 16 from holding accounts on their services while physically located in Australia. Enforcement involves fines of up to for companies failing to take such steps, with no consequences for parents and children who violate the restrictions. There are no parental consent exceptions to the ban, and while the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) to access these services remains legal in Australia, the services are expected to try to stop under16s from using VPNs to pretend to be outside Australia. The expectation is to make best-efforts to implement the ban on platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter, Threads, Twitch, Kick and YouTube.
Some social media companies are obligated to become good enough at profiling Australian children under 16 to satisfy the Australian government they tried to implement the ban to avoid being fined. Consequently, social media companies said they would try to identify restricted users using various methods, including behavioural inferencing. On 5 November 2025, it was announced that online gaming platform Roblox would not be banned, but Reddit and live-streaming platform Kick was added to the list of platforms to be banned.
A report by Age Check Certification Scheme, a UK company recruited by the government to consult on the technology used to implement the restrictions, was issued in June 2025, ahead of the December deadline to implement the ban. In June 2025, the preliminary report was released, which stated that "there are no significant technological barriers" to implementing the ban.
In late July 2025, Google warned that it would sue the Australian Government if YouTube was included in the ban. On 30 July, the government announced that it would extend its social media age limit to include YouTube, following advice from Grant. On 30 July 2025, the minister for communications, Anika Wells, published the Online Safety (Age-Restricted Social Media Platforms) Rules 2025, which specify exactly which types of social media platforms will be banned for certain users.
On 31 August 2025, the full report was released, which stated that it would technically be possible to implement the ban; however, coordination among different services is required to successfully implement it. It also highlighted the benefits and flaws of different methods of age verification. On 16 September 2025, it was announced that the eSafety Commissioner will be able to take legal action against social media companies that have not pursued reasonable steps to bar users under the age of 16, and that fines can range up to against these companies in court.
On 19 November 2025, Meta announced that from 4 December their platforms (Instagram, Facebook, and Threads) would be removing users under the age of 16 ahead of the 10 December deadline. Users will be able to scan a face or provide an identity document to prove their age. On 21 November 2025, the eSafety Commissioner announced that the live-streaming platform Twitch will be included in the ban, but that Pinterest would not be.
In December 2025, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant suggested efforts to block users include use by social media companies of various "signals" to identify children that are physically located in Australia and in the target age range, for the purpose of countering "location-based [... and] aged-based circumvention". Grant also commented that costs for suitable VPNs are "in the thousands of dollars" and therefore out of reach of most teenagers, despite VPNs being available for less than per month.
Platforms affected Grant has stated that there would not be a static list of age-restricted platforms, due to changing services and technology.
, the following platforms are required to implement age restrictions: Facebook Instagram Kick Reddit Snapchat Threads TikTok Twitch Twitter YouTube
, the following platforms were considered by Grant but ultimately are not required to implement age restrictions:
Discord GitHub Google Classroom Lego Play Messenger Pinterest Roblox Steam (including Steam Chat) WhatsApp YouTube Kids
Based on individual companies' own assessments, the following platforms are also blocked:
Azar Bigo Live Bluesky Hinge Lemon8 Match.com OkCupid Plenty of Fish Wizz Yubo Tinder
Reactions An official at Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, stated that the company would comply with any laws regarding age restrictions for children in Australia. Snap, the owner of Snapchat, also confirmed its intention to comply with the legislation. Meta stated that they would prefer mobile app store operators (Apple's App Store and Google's Play Store) verify a user's age rather than having the onus fall to individual platforms.