eSafety has significant concerns about the compliance of Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube with Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age (SMMA) obligation and is continuing to gather evidence necessary to inform potential enforcement action.
eSafety’s first SMMA compliance report, published today, shows there has been some progress in the first 3 months, including large scale account removals and more visible underage reporting pathways.
However, insights from a range of sources including platforms’ responses to legally enforceable information-gathering notices, public reporting and eSafety’s pulse survey, show major gaps remain.
eSafety has observed a number of poor practices that give rise to compliance concerns outlined in today’s report. These include:
- Prompting children to attempt age assurance even where their declared age prior to 10 December 2025 was under 16.
- Enabling children aged under 16 to repeatedly attempt the same age assurance method to ultimately obtain a 16+ outcome.
- Failing to provide accessible or effective pathways for reporting age-restricted accounts.
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Insufficient measures to prevent new under 16 accounts being created.
eSafety has notified the relevant age-restricted platforms about specific issues and expectations for improvement and warned it is currently investigating potential non-compliance.
“While social media platforms have taken some initial action, I am concerned through our compliance monitoring that some may not be doing enough to comply with Australian law,” eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said.
“As a result, we are now moving into an enforcement stance. Any enforcement action requires sufficient evidence, which takes time to gather. The evidence must establish the platform has not taken reasonable steps to prevent children aged under 16 from having an account. That means more than simply demonstrating some children do still have accounts. Rather, the evidence must show the platform has not implemented appropriate systems and processes.”
eSafety has a range of enforcement powers, including infringement notices, enforceable undertakings, public Platform Provider Notifications and civil penalties of up to $49.5 million.
While eSafety is releasing this update as part of our continued commitment to transparency, there will be some information we cannot share to maintain the integrity of our investigations and ensure any potential enforcement action is not compromised.
ENDS
Additional quotes attributable to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant:
“This reform is unwinding 20 years of entrenched social media practices.
“Durable, generational change takes time—but these platforms have the capability to comply today and we certainly expect companies operating in Australia to comply with our safety laws.
“They can choose to do so or face escalating consequences, including profound reputational erosion with governments and consumers globally.
“While the onus is on age-restricted platforms to take reasonable steps to keep children under 16 from having accounts, parents are proving pivotal partners in this cultural reset.
“We have heard from parents who have said the law is empowering them to say no to requests by their kids to have social media accounts.
“Any cultural change that pushes against the powerful interests and revenue potential of entrenched industry players - whether car manufacturers, Big Tobacco or Big Tech. Those players will push back but we continue to push ahead.
“We are committed to seeing further action taken by these social media giants, either through significant safety uplift in line with Australia’s laws, or in response to enforcement action.”