🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Millions of under-16 accounts were removed before Qustodio found about 20% still using TikTok and Snapchat

• The ~20% figure refers to Australians aged 13 to 15 whom Qustodio data found still using TikTok and Snapchat about two months after the government lifted the minimum social media age to 16 and required services to block under-16s.
• Australia’s eSafety Commissioner (the country’s online safety regulator) said 4.7 million social media accounts tied to children under 16 were removed in the first half of December 2025 1.
• Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram) said it blocked about 550,000 accounts it believed belonged to under-16s across Instagram, Facebook, and Threads in early December 2025 2.
• To comply, companies must take “reasonable steps” to keep under-16s off their services using multiple age-assurance technologies. They cannot rely on self-certification or parents vouching for children 2.
• Approaches include linking to bank accounts, submitting photo IDs, and facial age estimation. These tools help explain mass removals, plus why some teens still get around the ban 3.

Australia’s ban is a global test case for age-gated social media access

• Australia’s law has become a global test case, influencing proposals or moves in Spain and the U.K. Malaysia said it would ban social media accounts for children younger than 16 from 2026 1.
• This shift strains the one-size-fits-all approach used by global apps. Meta argues age checks plus parental approval should happen at the app store level, which would move more responsibility to app stores 4.
• Compliance pressure is opening a market for age verification technology. It also fuels debate about online anonymity and surveillance 5.
• Critics warn these systems can push firms to collect sensitive data including biometrics (such as facial scans), which could harm privacy and support tracking or censorship. Others argue the law aimed to limit reliance on government IDs alone, which may push providers toward biometric tools 6.