Australia’s government expects to take Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube to court over alleged failures to keep children under 16 off their platforms, Communications Minister Anika Wells told Bloomberg.
In an interview in Sydney on Monday, Oct. 19, Wells said eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant now has “more powers to be able to gather the evidence that she needs to take those five companies to the Federal Court.”
“She’s now using those powers to prepare her case,” Wells said. No date has been given for a filing.
How the age limit works
Australia’s minimum age for social media took effect Dec. 10, 2025. It requires platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube to take reasonable steps to stop children under 16 from holding accounts, according to eSafety.
The legal duty falls on the companies. There are no penalties for children who use the platforms or for their parents or carers.
Platforms are expected to find and remove existing underage accounts, block new ones and close off ways around the rules. They must also give users a way to challenge a mistaken restriction.
Bigger penalties and wider powers
eSafety said in March that it was investigating the five platforms. The government has since given the commissioner power to demand documents and to summon current or former employees for questioning, Bloomberg reported.
It also doubled the maximum penalty for a breach to A$109.2 million, or about US$76 million.
Wells defended the law in an Oct. 15 speech at the National Press Club. “The law is not failing. Platforms are failing to comply with the law,” she said.
What the companies say
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in August that it had removed access to more than 750,000 accounts in Australia that it assessed as belonging to under-16s, as of June 30.
Meta and eSafety had no immediate comment on Wells’s remarks, Bloomberg reported. Snap, TikTok and Google, which owns YouTube, did not immediately reply.