AUSTRALIAN TEENS BYPASS SOCIAL MEDIA BAN

Australia's social media ban for under-16s, implemented in late 2024, appears to have limited effectiveness based on new survey data. The findings reveal significant gaps in platform enforcement and user workarounds. Approximately 60% of surveyed teens maintained active access to their accounts despite the ban. Two-thirds said social media platforms took no steps to deactivate or delete their accounts, suggesting minimal compliance from major platforms. The results highlight the challenge of age-verification enforcement across digital platforms. Teenagers reportedly used various methods to circumvent restrictions, including VPNs, parental accounts, and creating new profiles with false age information. Platforms including Meta, TikTok, and others have faced criticism for inconsistent implementation of the ban. The survey suggests many companies deprioritized account removal efforts, focusing instead on age-gating mechanisms that proved easy to bypass. The data underscores the difficulty of implementing blanket restrictions in the digital space without robust verification systems and platform cooperation.