Australia’s under-16 social media ban exposes the urgent need for privacy-first age verification

By Sarah Bone, Co-Founder and Children’s Online Safety Advocate, YEO Messaging

Australia’s decision to ban social media for under-16s is a landmark moment in online safety, with broad public backing. A 2024 YouGov poll found that 77% of Australian adults support the move, reflecting growing concern about the risks children face online, from grooming and exploitation to anxiety, harmful content, and misinformation.

The Albanese government has placed responsibility directly on social media companies, requiring platforms defined as “age-restricted social-media services” to take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16s from creating or holding accounts. This applies not only to future users but to the millions of existing accounts already belonging to minors.

What constitutes “reasonable steps,” however, has been left intentionally flexible. Instead of mandating a single method, the government has outlined a spectrum of privacy-conscious age-assurance technologies, from age estimation to selfie-based verification and ID checks, while explicitly preventing platforms from relying solely on government ID uploads or accredited third-party providers. This reflects a critical principle: age assurance must not become intrusive, coercive, or exclusionary.

This moment is a wake-up call for the tech industry. Platforms will need to demonstrate not only that they attempted to verify age, but that they did so in a way that is privacy-preserving, proportionate, and trustworthy. The era of “tick-box compliance” is over.

Australia’s law shows that protecting children cannot be achieved through policy alone. It requires technology that embeds verified trust into the digital ecosystem itself.

Age verification should be seamless, secure, and dignified, enabling access while safeguarding privacy.

If platforms and regulators work together to prioritise privacy-first standards, Australia’s approach could become the global blueprint. The question now is not whether age verification is required, but how we implement it in a way that genuinely protects those who need it most.

About the author

Sarah Bone is co-founder and CMO of YEO Messaging, a secure and private messaging platform that’s redefining online safety through innovation and trust.

Article Topics

age verification  |  Australia  |  Australia age verification  |  legislation  |  social media  |  Yeo Messaging