The age of age-gating is here

TL;DR: Meta has blocked access to over half a million accounts in order to comply with Australia’s social media ban for children. Since the law went into effect last month, social platforms have scrambled—reluctantly—to comply. The big questions now: How far will the age-gating wave spread? And will this law actually keep kids and teens off social?

What happened: On Dec. 10, Australia became the first country to ban social media for anyone under 16. Ten social media platforms are part of the initial ban—including YouTube, Reddit, and Twitch. In the biggest response yet, Meta just locked out “almost 550,000 accounts belonging to people we understand to be under 16 years old” on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads. (Family group chats are safe—WhatsApp is exempt.)

While many social companies are using a mix of government ID checks and photo verification to comply, some are using existing data to quietly determine which users are under 16. X says it uses the account creation date and even, somehow, email addresses to estimate age. Snapchat uses age data that iOS users have already shared with Apple.

Companies, not users, face the risk of penalties for not complying. Under Australia’s law, platforms can be fined up to $49.5 million AUD (about $33 million USD) for failing to take “reasonable steps” to keep under-16s out. Meta’s made it clear it isn’t thrilled about the ban. The company urged the Australian government to “find a better way forward,” writing that app-level bans drive “teens to less regulated apps and parts of the internet.”

The debate: Age restricting the most harmful parts of online life has become a hot button topic for governments all over the world. Lawsuits filed by several US school districts allege that Meta uncovered (and later suppressed) evidence that its platforms harmed mental health. Similar accusations have been lobbed at other social media platforms. Meta’s own research also found that teens who said Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies were far more likely to be shown eating disorder–related content.

But age-gating has vocal critics, who argue it simply won’t work. For one, teens know how to use VPNs. They could also move to lesser known, less regulated alternatives, or use AI to fool facial recognition systems. Smaller platforms without Meta’s deep pockets may simply block users in jurisdictions with age bans, as Bluesky initially did in Mississippi.

Age bans also raise serious privacy concerns. Social media platforms, along with the third-party age-verification companies they rely on, would collect even more sensitive user data, including photos of people’s faces.

What to watch for: As more countries try to copy-paste versions of Australia’s law, privacy groups will likely mobilize against such blanket bans. We might see a showdown between governments demanding stricter controls and platforms chafing at the new rules. Teens—and even parents—in affected countries may push back, citing ineffectiveness or government overreach. And some influencers are already moving out of the country to avoid the ban. —WK