More than eight in ten Australian teenagers were still using social media three months after the country’s landmark ban on under-16 accounts took effect, according to new data from the online safety regulator eSafety.
The regulator’s report, published on Friday and drawn from a two-year study tracking the ban’s outcomes, surveyed more than 4,000 children and families before and after the restriction began.
About half the children maintaining their accounts revealed that there were no checks by the social media platform about their age. Some revealed that their accounts reflected an age of 16 years and above, or age verification systems had incorrectly detected them as older than their age.
Some 58% of teenagers admitted to using social media sites either every day or more frequently, just slightly lower than 60% before the ban came into force on 10th December. The ownership of the accounts has gone down to 42% from 52%.
Non-compliance investigation by eSafety is ongoing following the discovery of similar instances during the March snapshot of the ban.
As a reaction, the government in June raised the maximum fine for non-compliance twice and increased the powers of eSafety in gathering evidence from technology companies.
This study highlighted a surprising consequence of the ban, as there was a decrease in the awareness level of parents about the Internet activities of their children.
Reddit, which challenged its listing on the ban through the High Court, reported an increase in its young users from 6% to over 9%.
