Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged some young people were still on social media a day after a world-first ban on under-16s went live, saying the roll-out was always going to be bumpy but would ultimately save lives.
A day after the law took effect, Australian social media feeds were flooded with comments from people claiming to be under 16, including one on the prime minister’s TikTok account saying “I’m still here, wait until I can vote”.
Under the law, 10 of the biggest platforms including TikTok, Meta’s Instagram and Alphabet’s YouTube must bar underage users or face a fine of up to A$49.5 million (US$33 million). The government has said previously that it would take some time for the platforms to set up processes to do this.
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“Of course it isn’t smooth,” Albanese told Melbourne radio station FOX.
“You can’t in one day switch off over a million accounts across the board. But it is happening.”
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On Nova Radio in Sydney, Albanese added: “If it was easy, someone else would have done it.”
Governments around the world have said they would monitor the Australian roll-out as they weigh whether to do something similar. US Republican Senator Josh Hawley endorsed the ban as it took effect, Nine newspapers reported, while France, Denmark, Malaysia and others have already said they plan to emulate the Australian model.