Australia: Under-16s Banned from Social Media, a World First

In Australia, individuals under the age of 16 are now officially prohibited from accessing most social media platforms. This groundbreaking initiative aims to protect young people from the addictive algorithms of Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat.

Without reasonable measures in place to enforce this law, the affected platforms could face fines of up to 28 million euros under this obligation, which came into effect Wednesday at midnight Sydney and Canberra time (13:00 GMT Tuesday) and will be closely monitored by authorities in many countries.