Australia Moves to Sue Facebook, TikTok, YouTube Over Child Ban

From Dispatch Room

Australia is preparing legal action against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube over alleged failures to enforce the country’s restrictions on social media accounts belonging to children under 16.

Communications Minister Anika Wells confirmed the development on Tuesday, October 20, 2026, as the government intensified efforts to hold major technology companies accountable for compliance with its online child-protection legislation.

Wells said Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, was gathering evidence for anticipated proceedings in the Federal Court against the five platforms.

The companies have been under investigation since March over concerns that their age-verification systems are inadequate and that significant numbers of children continue to maintain social media accounts despite the restrictions.

Australia introduced the legislation on December 10, 2025, becoming the first country to require major social media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent children under 16 from maintaining accounts.

The law places responsibility for compliance on technology companies rather than children or their parents. Platforms must demonstrate that they have implemented reasonable systems to identify underage users and prevent them from operating accounts.

However, investigations have revealed substantial weaknesses in the enforcement arrangements. Regulatory findings published in July indicated that many children could retain existing accounts or register new ones because of ineffective age-verification measures.

The government has responded by strengthening the regulator’s investigative powers and increasing the maximum financial penalties for companies found to have systematically breached the legislation.

Under the revised penalty framework, offending corporations face fines of up to A$109.2 million, equivalent to approximately US$76 million.

The additional enforcement powers allow the eSafety Commissioner to obtain documents and other relevant information from technology companies and require current or former employees to answer questions during investigations.

Wells said the expanded authority would enable the regulator to gather the evidence necessary to pursue proceedings against companies suspected of failing to comply with the legislation.

The government previously disclosed that more than five million accounts associated with underage users had been removed, deactivated or restricted since the law took effect.

Despite those measures, Australian authorities maintain that some technology companies have failed to implement adequate safeguards against children circumventing restrictions or creating new accounts.

The investigations are examining whether the platforms have taken reasonable steps to comply with the legislation. The continued presence of underage users alone does not automatically establish a legal breach.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, is among the companies facing possible proceedings. TikTok, Snapchat and Google’s YouTube are also under scrutiny.

The companies had not issued immediate public responses to the minister’s latest comments. No court ruling establishing liability against the five platforms has been announced in connection with the anticipated proceedings.

The enforcement campaign comes amid growing international scrutiny of social media platforms and their responsibilities towards children.

Several countries, including France, the United Kingdom and Norway, have pursued or proposed tighter restrictions on young people’s access to social media services.

The debate has also raised questions about privacy, the reliability of age-verification technology and the potential consequences of restricting online communication among young people.

For Australian authorities, the next major development will be the commencement of formal legal proceedings and the evidence presented to establish whether the companies failed to meet their statutory responsibilities.

As of October 20, legal action is being prepared, with the regulator gathering evidence. Formal proceedings against the five companies have yet to be confirmed.

— Newspot Nigeria