Six months after Australia’s groundbreaking ban on social media use for children under 16 came into force, the nation’s top online safety regulator has laid out the legal and procedural reasons no penalties have yet been issued to non-compliant platforms.
During a Senate estimates hearing this week, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant pushed back against growing public and political pressure to issue immediate fines, emphasizing that the regulator does not have the authority to unilaterally impose penalties.
The ban, enacted by the Albanese government, took effect on December 10, 2026, and since that date, eSafety has been conducting in-depth compliance reviews of 10 major global social media platforms, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Snapchat. Inman-Grant told the committee that the investigations into whether platforms are meeting the legal requirement of taking “reasonable steps” to block under-16 users remain ongoing, describing the process as inherently complex.
While Inman-Grant confirmed that regulators raised serious concerns about industry compliance in a March 2026 regulatory update, she noted that targeted engagement with platforms has already delivered measurable incremental progress. As of March, data showed a 37% drop in the number of confirmed under-16 accounts across major platforms, and parents have reported more open, constructive discussions with their children about online safety risks and appropriate digital habits.
Since the March update, Inman-Grant said additional corrective changes have been implemented by platforms. Some services have introduced new age verification checks for accounts that had adjusted their stated birth date to 16+ just before or after the ban took effect, catching additional underage users who slipped through initial checks. Others have removed unnecessary administrative barriers that made it harder for parents to report underage accounts, and several platforms have updated their age ratings in major app stores to align with the new national rules.
Despite these encouraging early signs, Inman-Grant stressed that regulators have not yet reached a final ruling on whether any platform meets the full legal standard for compliance. Systemic non-compliance can only be punished after regulators build a solid evidence base and pursue formal legal proceedings through the court system, she explained, rejecting the idea that penalties could be handed down quickly. “Unfortunately, we don’t have a fine issuing button,” Inman-Grant told the committee. “Rather, systemic non-compliance needs to be proven in court with solid evidence and complex legal proceedings.”
To support the ongoing investigation and any future enforcement actions, the regulator has now retained an external independent legal team, Inman-Grant confirmed. When pressed by Liberal Senator Sarah Henderson to name which specific platforms have made changes, eSafety General Manager for Regulatory Operations Heidi Snell said details shared by platforms under statutory compulsory notices cannot be disclosed at this stage. Snell explained that public release of platform-specific information would jeopardize ongoing investigations and any potential future enforcement action, as assessments of the effectiveness of corrective measures are not yet complete.
Inman-Grant used the occasion to point to a recently concluded three-year enforcement action against X Corp, formerly Twitter, as a case study for how the regulator pursues non-compliance. The company was found non-compliant with a transparency mandate related to child sexual abuse material, ultimately admitted liability, and agreed to pay a AU$650,000 penalty plus covering regulatory court costs. Inman-Grant noted that this action is one of the few successful enforcement outcomes against a global tech platform by any regulator worldwide, proving that methodical, evidence-based enforcement delivers tangible results even against large companies. “Such outcomes are hard won, and they demonstrate that careful, methodical enforcement with a substantial evidence base is results,” she said.