Australia's under-16 social media ban became law in late 2025. Platforms were required to verify the age of Australian users and remove accounts held by under-16s. Three months into enforcement, the eSafety Commissioner's own compliance reporting shows the platforms are not doing what the law requires.
Age verification is inconsistent across platforms. Some use self-declaration. Some use credit card checks. A handful are testing AI-based age estimation. None of the methods are watertight and the regulator knows it. Warnings have been issued. Penalties have not.
Maximum fine per breach under Australia's Online Safety Amendment Act. Not one penalty has been issued in the first three months of enforcement.
The compliance gap matters for two groups: parents who assumed the law solved the problem and brands who assumed their audience targeting would adjust automatically. Neither assumption is correct.
Why it matters
If you are running paid social campaigns in Australia targeting audiences that should exclude under-16s, you cannot assume the platforms have cleaned their user bases to match the law. Platforms self-report compliance. The regulator accepts self-reporting while building its own audit capability.
Your ad targeting settings are only as reliable as the platform's underlying age data. That data is currently unreliable by the government's own assessment.
There is also the reputational dimension. Brands advertising on platforms found non-compliant with a children's safety law face exposure. The law is popular. Enforcement failures will generate coverage. Being named in that coverage is a risk most brands have not explicitly priced.
What to do about it
Do not assume the law has fixed the targeting problem. Review your under-18 audience exclusions across Meta, TikTok and Snapchat. Verify they are active and apply to all ad sets, not just new campaigns.
Document your settings. If the regulator or a journalist asks whether your brand was advertising in the spirit of the law, your audit trail is your defence.
Watch the eSafety Commissioner's enforcement timeline. The first penalties, when they land, will trigger media coverage and renewed scrutiny of advertisers on those platforms. Being ahead of that moment costs nothing. Being caught unprepared costs considerably more.
The law is real. The gap between law and enforcement is also real. Treat them as separate problems and manage both.
