Australia to Take Legal Action Against Facebook and TikTok Over Under-16 Social Media Ban Violations

Australia's government will file a lawsuit against Facebook and other big tech social media companies over concerns they are not complying with a national social media ban for users under 16, Communications Minister Anika Wells told AFP in an interview.

In March, the country's online safety regulator, eSafety Commissioner, stated it was taking a look at Facebook and Instagram (both owned by Meta Platforms Inc.), TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube for violating the law. Part of the effort to keep underage users from accessing harmful content online, the legislation calls on companies to do what is reasonable in stopping minors from opening a social media account.

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Wells said in an interview in Sydney on Monday that she was hoping the lawsuits would go forward against the five platforms.

An eSafety report in July found most underage social media users were able to keep their accounts or create new ones, largely due to a lack of effective age checks on the platforms.

The Government has tripled the maximum penalty for breaches since Australia's world first ban was introduced nearly a year ago – from A$109,200(76,000) to A$327,600 (230,000). The government has also given eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant more powers to investigate, such as the ability to request documents from social media sites and to summon current or previous employees to answer questions.

“Now she has more powers to be able to gather the evidence that she needs to take those five companies to the Federal Court,” Wells said. “She’s now using those powers to prepare her case.”

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Meta and eSafety did not immediately comment. Representatives for Snap Inc., which makes Snapchat, TikTok and its parent ByteDance Ltd., and YouTube parent Google didn't immediately reply to the emails seeking responses to the minister's comments.

The eSafety Commissioner is an independent government body, but is responsible to Australia's parliament via the communications minister, who is currently Wells. Wells told companies they're not doing enough to comply with the age restrictions on social media last week.

“The law isn't broken, platforms are just not abiding by the law,” Wells said on Oct. 15 at the National Press Club. We will not back down from taking tech companies to task.

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