US EditionSnapchat Blocks 415K Underage Accounts, Flags Gaps in Australia's Social Media Law
- On Monday, 02/02/2026, Snapchat said it had blocked 415,000 accounts in Australia by the end of January and warned some youngsters may bypass age verification.
- The law, effective December 10, requires platforms including Snapchat, Meta, TikTok and YouTube to stop under‑16 users or face fines of Aus$49.5 million ; Australia's eSafety online regulator reported last month that tech giants had already blocked 4.7 million accounts.
- Snapchat and Meta urged Australian authorities to require app stores to check users' ages before downloads as an "additional safeguard," with Snapchat saying `Creating a centralized verification system at the app-store level would allow for more consistent protection and higher barriers to circumventing the law`.
- Snapchat said it did not support an outright ban and argued cutting teens off messaging would not make them safer or happier under the social media ban.
- Technical accuracy and health studies together shape the debate as age‑estimation technology is only accurate to within two to three years, while recent studies on youth mental health link social media use by children under 16 to depression and ADHD.
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63 Articles
Australia’s teen social media ban blocks millions as France weighs its own ban
As France prepares to vote on banning teens from social media, Australia’s ban, which came into effect in December, is already having an impact, with platforms blocking nearly five !million accounts in December alone. Snapchat, which said it blocked over 400,000 accounts warns that some users may be bypassing the age verification technology.
Snapchat blocked 415,000 accounts under the ban on social media for children under 16 years of age in Australia, the company reported on Monday, but warned that some young people might be circumventing age verification technology.
Because of the social media ban on children and adolescents in Australia, the online service blocked hundreds of thousands of accounts and warned against "significant gaps" in the enforcement of the ban.
The social network, however, points to the limits of control measures and explains that the tools to estimate the age of users have a margin of error of two to three years Snapchat a
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