Australia is doubling max fines for social media ban violations

Australia's teen social media ban has been in effect since December, and the government's verdict on how it's going is pretty clear: not well enough.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced this week that Australia will double the maximum penalty for violating its social media minimum age law, raising the fine ceiling from $AUD49.5 million ($US33 million) to $AUD99 million ($US68.2 million). The government is also moving to expand the eSafety Commissioner's powers to compel platforms to hand over evidence of what they're actually doing to keep under-16s off their services.

The news comes roughly six months after Australia's Online Safety Amendment Act took effect, banning platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, X, and YouTube from allowing users under 16 to hold accounts, as Mashable previously reported. More than five million accounts have been removed, deactivated, or restricted since Dec. 10 — but according to Albanese, that's not good enough.

"It is clear that social media platforms are adopting tricks straight out of the big tech playbook and doing the bare minimum to get by," said Minister for Communications Anika Wells in the government's statement.

The eSafety Commissioner is currently investigating potential non-compliance across five platforms: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.

The new legislation would also extend the Commissioner's reach to third parties like age-verification and app-store providers — closing a loophole that let platforms point fingers elsewhere when their enforcement fell short.