Australia doubles maximum penalty for breaching under-16 social media ban to A$99 million

Summary

Australia raised the maximum civil penalty for breaching its under-16 social media ban from A$49.5 million to A$99 million on June 27, six months after the ban came into force in December 2025. The Communications Minister cited survey data showing 85 percent of 12-to-15-year-olds still access major platforms, signalling the initial enforcement regime was insufficient. The eSafety Commissioner received new statutory powers to demand compliance data from platforms operating in Australia, replacing what officials described as a voluntary information-sharing arrangement that major tech companies had largely ignored.

Why it matters

Australia's ban was the world's most ambitious attempt to legislate children off social media by age threshold. The doubling of penalties six months in signals that platform non-compliance is persistent, and may pressure other governments watching the policy experiment to set higher fine ceilings from the outset.

What to watch

• Whether any platform faces the first penalty action under the toughened regime.
• Challenge to the ban's age-verification mechanism in Australian federal courts; a constitutional challenge had been foreshadowed by industry groups.
• Whether the EU's Digital Services Act enforcement team references Australia's approach in its own review of platform duty-of-care obligations.