Australia Becomes the First Country To Ban Social Media for Teens — How Does It Work?

As much as we all use it to promote our brands, stalk our exes (no judgies!), or to doom scroll following a hard day's work, social media is undoubtedly part of our modern lives. However, with the ongoing surge of cyberbullying costing many people, especially young people's lives, there have been more of a push for legislators to take action in regulating social media activities.

In an effort to reduce the rise in teen social media bullying, Australia became the first country to create the world's first social media ban. Here's what to know about the ban and how it works.

The Australian government announced the plans for its ban in November 2025. According to CBS News, the government ordered the three Meta platforms — Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, plus Snapchat, TikTok, X and YouTube — to ban Australians under the age of 16 from creating an account. Additionally, the platforms deleted multiple existing accounts from users under 16 on Dec. 10, 2025.

The government's ban directly holds social media companies responsible if they become in violation of it. Officials plan to take necessary steps to keep kids off their platforms, and should use multiple age assurance technologies. Rather than relying on the “Are you 13?” honor system that most platforms currently use, Australia wants to enforce strict age verification, meaning users would have to prove their age using verified documents or digital ID systems before signing up.

The age verification includes but isn't limited to government IDs, face or voice recognition, or so-called "age inference", which analyses online behavior and interactions to estimate a person's age. Additionally, the government plans to fine any platform that allows a child under 16 to set up an account after going through the age verification $49.5m (US$32m) fine for security or repeated breaches.

Australia's social media ban was pushed by several of the country's lawmakers. Peter Malinauskas, the Premier of South Australia, was among them, as he was the primary political architect in the ban that became a federal law. Peter shared with CBS News Australia that his wife motivated him to look into regulating social media during her recap of a nightly read.

"She read a book called The Anxious Generation, by Jonathan Haidt," Peter explained. "And I will never forget the night she finished reading the book and she put it down on her lap and she turned to me and said, 'You better do something about this!'"

The politician further defended his stance, stating he hoped the ban would encourage teens to have more in-person experiences rather than being glued to their phones.

"Heaven forbid they might talk to one another a bit more, pick up the phone and have a chat rather than just being obsessed with the screen," he shared.

Due to the success of Australia's social media ban, other countries, including the U.S., have looked into enforcing similar bans. However, an attempt in the US state of Utah to ban children under 18 from social media without parental consent was blocked by a federal judge in 2024.