Australia Doubles The Maximum Penalty For Its Social Media Ban

After becoming the first in the world to implement a social media ban for those under 16, Australia isn’t doubling down. In a press release, the Australian government announced that it will double the maximum penalty for any social media companies breaking its minimum age law, from 49.5 million to 99 million AUD, or more than $68 million.

“It’s clear big tech are not doing enough to comply with the law,” Anthony Albanese, the country’s prime minister, said. “These changes reflect the seriousness with which we take any failure by social media companies to comply with our world-leading law.”

Along with the new penalty threshold, the Australian government is granting its eSafety Commissioner, Julie Grant, more enforcement power. Now, the commissioner can demand social media companies provide evidence of how they’re stopping children under 16 years old from starting an account. Notably, the Australian agency can gather evidence regarding compliance with the ban from third parties, like from age verification or app store providers, according to the press release. The country’s online safety agency also said it’s still “actively investigating potential non-compliance” with Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.

While the government said it has already seen more than five million under-16 accounts removed, deactivated or restricted since the ban went into effect in December, there have been some recent studies and polls that note the potential ineffectiveness. In April, a charity organization called the Molly Rose Foundation found that 61 percent of more than 1,000 kids polled between 12 and 15 years old still had access to social media. More recently, the University of Newcastle published a study that claimed that more than 85 percent of Australian teens under 16 are still on social media apps.