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Kids in Australia are in for an unprecedented change.
Beginning Dec. 10, the owners of social media platforms including Instagram and TikTok will be required to take “reasonable steps” to prevent internet users in the country under the age of 16 from creating accounts on their websites, while also having to deactivate or remove existing profiles.
The restriction, which the Australian government approved in November 2024, was introduced as a measure to decrease young people’s dependence on the world wide web and limit exposure to potentially dangerous content. In fact, a national study released last month found that seven out of 10 kids between ages 10 and 15 said they’d “encountered content associated with harm” online.
Lawmakers were hopeful that the pioneering initiative—which will impact more than one million social media accounts—would catch on internationally, even as social media companies have expressed opposition to the move.
“I’ve always referred to this as the first domino,” Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said this week, per NBC News, “which is why they pushed back.”
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