Australia’s under-16 social media ban has removed millions of accounts, but compliance gaps, loopholes and unanswered questions remain.

Nearly four months into Australia’s social media ban for under-16s, the online regulator has released its first detailed compliance update report on how the world-first policy is progressing.

eSafety’s report comes at a crucial time, with many other countries eyeing the progress of the ban. Since the ban took effect on 10 December last year, I have spoken with journalists from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. Everyone asks two questions: how successful is the ban, and are children still accessing social media platforms?

The new report paints a complicated picture – and leaves other key questions about the social media ban unanswered.

The report acknowledges social media companies have taken “some steps” to comply with the social media legislation (which restricts account holders to those aged 16 and older). Some 4.7 million accounts were removed by mid-January and another 310,000 by early March.

However, the report also highlights “compliance concerns” in four key areas:

Messaging to under-16s on some platforms encouraged children to attempt age assurance even where they declared themselves to be underage.

Some platforms enabled under-16s to repeatedly attempt the same age-assurance method to ultimately pass age checks.

Pathways for reporting age-restricted accounts have generally not been accessible and effective, particularly for parents.

Some........

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