A new eSafety study reveals most under 16s still access networks three months after the ban. Enforcement weaknesses leave parents less aware.
Sydney, July 31 – more than 80% of Australian teenagers were still using social media three months after the government’s ban on under-16s came into effect, introduced amid concerns about the impact of social media on the mental and physical health of children and young people. The country’s online safety regulator noted that major tech companies had not implemented effective age checks.
In a study published on Friday, eSafety also found that the share of children aged 10 to 15 who use social media remained as active in March as it was before the ban introduced on December 10 of last year; at the same time, parents’ awareness of their children’s habits declined.
Youth users continued to use social networks even as the number of accounts fell from 52% to 42%, and “statistically significant” declines were recorded, notably on YouTube, Snapchat and TikTok.
Most under-16 teens who previously had social media accounts managed to keep them or create new ones by the three-month mark, the reason given as the ineffectiveness of age-verification measures by the platforms.
– eSafety
Teens say their ages aren’t being verified
Before the ban, almost 86% of surveyed children reported using at least one platform with an age restriction. Three months later, this figure remained above 81%.
About 58% of teens reported daily or more frequent use of social networks, hardly changed from about 60% before the ban was introduced.
Around half of the children who kept accounts said that the platforms did not verify their age, which was the most common reason for keeping access to the services. Others said their accounts were flagged as age 16 or older, or that age-verification systems incorrectly flagged them as older than the permitted threshold.
The results partly align with the fragmentary data that eSafety released in late March.
Following the March update, eSafety announced an investigation into possible breaches by five platforms: Facebook and Instagram from Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube from Google.
In June, the government said it would double the maximum penalty for ban violations and strengthen eSafety’s powers to gather evidence of what actions platform companies took to stop minors’ access to accounts.
While eSafety has noted some improvements from the industry after the March update of the minimum age for social networks, concerns remain about compliance by the five platforms named at the time.
– regulator
Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and Google did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
The report, prepared by a global advisory panel of university researchers, compared data from more than 4,000 children and families before the ban was introduced and three months after it.
This is the first report in a two-year study evaluating the impact of the world’s first-of-its-kind ban on social networks for minors.
