Students look at their phones in Australia, where the government has passed a law banning social media for those under 16
Australia is set to introduce a social media ban for children under 16 by the end of 2025. AFP

A new report from Australia's online safety regulator has revealed that children were easily bypassing the weak age restrictions on popular social media platforms.

The report by eSafety highlighted that many of these platforms only require children to self-declare their age when signing up, leading to poorly enforced rules.

For children under 13, signing up for an account on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Snap is a straightforward process that only requires them to declare their age. With no further age-checking tools, the children are able to bypass the age limits.

The report found that in 2024, 80% of children aged 8 to 12 were using social media, with YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat being the most popular.

It also revealed that 95% of teens under 16 use at least one of the platforms surveyed.

eSafety's report was based on a national survey of Australian children aged 8-15, along with data from social media platforms about how they handle age restrictions.

Weak age verification

According to eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, the report showed how much work was still needed to ensure platforms properly enforce age restrictions.

"Few have any real stringent measures in place to determine age accurately at the point of sign-up so there's nothing stopping a 14-year-old for instance entering a false age or date of birth and setting up an unrestricted adult account that doesn't carry those extra safety features," Grant stated.

The report found that all services, except Reddit, asked for a date of birth during sign-up.

Only YouTube offers a family account feature that allows under-13 users with parental supervision, though none of the younger users reported their accounts being shut down for being underage.

While some platforms like TikTok, YouTube, and Amazon's Twitch use tools to detect users under 13, many others don't, though they have the technology available.

"Since the start of 2023, our... proactive age detection tools, have resulted in the removal of more than one million Australian users suspected of being under the age of 13," a TikTok spokesperson said, Reuters reported.

A Meta spokesperson said that the company supported age-appropriate online experiences for children, but added app stores should be responsible for enforcing age restrictions.

A step toward safer social media for kids

Grant urged that age restrictions were just one part of the larger effort to create safer online experiences for children.

"We'll be consulting with industry and other stakeholders this year about what reasonable steps platforms should be expected to take to give effect to the minimum age requirements, and this report will be one key input to that process," she stated. "This report shows that there will be a tremendous amount of work to be done between now and December."

Australia was set to introduce a social media ban for children under 16 by the end of 2025, setting a new standard for global regulations.