Australia considers tougher enforcement of social media ban for teens

Australia's prime minister said on Friday he was keen to make sure the country's social media ban for children was as strong as possible, as a new study found that the measure, the first of its kind and now six months old, had little impact on teen use.

The government plans to stress-test the law which bans platforms like Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube from giving under-16s accounts.

"What we want to do is to make sure that the laws are as strong as possible and that they will withstand any legal challenges which are made," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corp.

He added that one key focus would be making sure that the eSafety Commission, the country's internet regulator, was sufficiently empowered to do the job.

Albanese did not give further details about what steps the government would take and the regulator declined to comment.

Australia's groundbreaking experiment is being closely watched with countries around the world seeking to emulate it amid concern about youth mental and physical health. Britain, for example, this month announced planned restrictions that go further as gaming and live-streaming platforms will also be affected.

The eSafety Commission and Communications Minister Anika Wells have said they are preparing legal action against multiple platforms, which face a maximum fine of A$49.5 million ($34 million) if they are found to have systemically failed to uphold the ban.

Reddit has launched a High Court challenge of the ban, which is still in preliminary hearings. Reddit was not immediately available for comment on Friday.

When Australia's ban went live last December, there were early reports that it had shut down millions of accounts, but parents have said and studies have shown that teen social media use is little changed.

A paper published in the British Medical Journal this week said 85% of Australians aged 12 to 15 were still using social media three months after the ban took effect, according to a study of 408 adolescents.

Two-thirds of underage users stayed online by self-declaring an age over 16 or posting a selfie that the platform accepted as over 16, the paper said.

"Despite the intent of the (ban) to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents," it said.