Reddit adds global teen-safety tools ahead of Australia ban

Reddit is introducing new safety features for users under 18 worldwide as Australia prepares to ban social media access for those under 16.

The San Francisco-based platform will implement stricter chat controls and limit personalized ads for minors, with these settings activated based on user age.

Australia’s ban, taking effect on December 10, 2025, targets services like TikTok and Instagram, and could lead to fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$32 million) for violations.

Reddit will ask Australian users for their birth date at signup and use age-prediction models to enforce the rules.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Australia’s ban begins without baseline counts by platform

Age-assurance rules that require services to verify users’ ages take effect on 10 December 2025. Monthly reports on under-16 account removals will start only after that date, and neither the government nor platforms has published baseline, platform-specific counts 1 2.
This gap blocks any real measure of commercial impact. Platforms face fines up to AUD 49.5 million, but without baseline usage it is unclear whether enforcement will shrink underage audiences or advertising revenue 3.
Lack of transparent platform-by-platform baselines also clouds public debate. Backers say the ban will “save a generation,” and opponents call it rushed policy, yet no one has published counts of under-16 accounts likely to be affected on each platform 4 5.

Age assurance vendors can win deals by meeting layered compliance needs

Australia’s Age Assurance Technology Trial (a government-run pilot program) tested over 60 solutions from 48 providers. It found that layered, risk-based setups that combine document checks, biometric estimation (face-based age estimation) and behavioral inference (signals like typing or browsing patterns) are technically feasible and commercially viable 6.
Covered services must take reasonable steps through structured risk assessments, proportionate verification methods and documented decision-making 7 6. This creates near-term demand for vendors that offer privacy-by-design tools with anonymized tokens (non-identifying proofs) or session-based checks (verifying age per session without storing identity).
Device-level controls (phone or operating-system settings) and Software Development Kit (SDK) providers with parental supervision tools can win adoption. The trial judged these controls effective yet insufficient on their own, which means they need integration with wider age checks to meet compliance 6.