Australia’s under-16 social media ban, ten months in: what happened and what it means for brands

Was the social media ban delayed?

No. This is the question with the most “breakout” searches in Australia, and the answer is simple: the minimum age of 16 has applied since December 10, 2025, and it is still in force.

The confusion comes from two things. Before launch, a parliamentary committee recommended pushing the rollout to mid-2026, which the government did not do. Then in 2026, the Senate delayed a vote on amendments that would give the eSafety Commissioner more power to demand evidence from platforms, sending them to an eight-week inquiry. That is a delay to the enforcement upgrade, not to the ban itself.

Which apps are included, and which are not

eSafety keeps an official list and can update it. As of the latest government fact sheet, the age-restricted platforms are the ones built around feeds, recommendations and endless scrolling. Messaging, gaming and education services are out.

So, is Pinterest part of the ban?

Pinterest is not on eSafety’s list of age-restricted platforms at the time of writing. Neither is LinkedIn. That can change, since eSafety reviews the list, but today a 14-year-old in Australia can legally have a Pinterest account.

One more nuance people miss: the law targets accounts, not viewing. Teens can still watch public YouTube videos without signing in. What they cannot do is hold an account that gets a personalised feed, comments and messages.

Is it working? The numbers so far

It depends which number you look at. One month in, platforms had removed about 4.7 million accounts belonging to under-16s, with Meta alone reporting around 550,000 across Instagram, Facebook and Threads. That sounds massive.

But eSafety’s own first evaluation found a 20% decrease in under-16s holding accounts, and several surveys show most teens are still on social media one way or another: older siblings’ logins, fake birthdates, age checks that are easy to fool. eSafety has opened investigations into Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube for possible non-compliance. Reddit is complying while challenging the law in court.

The fines are about to double

Platforms, not kids or parents, carry the risk. Today the maximum penalty is A$49.5 million. In June 2026 the government introduced legislation to raise it to A$99 million and to let eSafety compel companies to hand over evidence of what they are doing to keep under-16s out. Prime Minister Albanese argued that delaying the vote gives tech companies time to destroy evidence. Expect the platforms to tighten age checks well before that bill passes.

What it changes for Australian brands

For most businesses, very little. Pull up your Instagram or TikTok audience data: the 13 to 17 bracket is usually a small slice, except in gaming, music, teen fashion, beauty and some creator niches. If that is you, you have probably already watched that slice shrink since December.

What does change is the quality of your audience data. Fewer kids lying about their age means age breakdowns that are closer to reality, and fewer “followers” who were never going to buy anything. Don’t be surprised if your engagement rate ticks up as a result: the people who left were rarely the ones buying.

The bigger shift is cultural. Age checks at sign-up are becoming normal, and they are spreading: the UK, Denmark, France and Canada are all debating their own versions, which is why “social media ban” searches are climbing in the US too. We cover France’s attempt in France’s under-15 social media ban.

What we would do now if we ran an Australian brand’s socials

• Check your 13 to 17 share in Instagram and TikTok analytics, and compare it with last November.
• If teens are your buyers, talk to parents: they hold the card anyway. Facebook and Instagram content aimed at parents of teens is fully allowed.
• Lean on channels the ban does not touch: WhatsApp and email for teen-adjacent audiences, YouTube content that works logged-out.
• Do not try to work around it: no “use your parent’s account” calls to action, no creator deals built on under-16 audiences.
• Keep an eye on the list: eSafety can add platforms. If Pinterest or a new app gets added, you want to know before your campaign launches.

Where Perroly fits

When audiences move, the brands that adapt fastest are the ones already set up on several networks. Perroly lets you publish to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube and Threads from one calendar, and tracks your accounts daily so you can see the shift in your own numbers instead of guessing. It is free during the beta.