Kids in Australia routinely use social media apps and can bypass the age limit restrictions set by these platforms, suggests a report by the country’s online safety regulator on Thursday. eSafety’s report has combined results from a national survey on the use of social media by eight to 15-year-old children. It also included responses from eight major social media services like Google, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch.
80 percent of Australian kids aged eight to 12 used social media apps in 2024
eSafety’s report reveals that 80 percent of kids in Australia aged between eight and 12 used social media apps in 2024. China-based ByteDance’s TikTok, Meta’s Instagram, and Snap’s Snapchat were the most popular social networking platforms used by Australian Children last year. It’s worth pointing out that these companies largely do not allow those under 13 to access their services.
Furthermore, the report claims that kids in Australia, possibly in other parts of the world, are able to easily bypass the minimum age limit restrictions imposed by major social media platforms. All online services except Reddit require a date of birth at their sign-up stage. However, most of them rely only on self-declaration with no other age assurance tools for their users.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said, “There is still significant work to be done by any social media platforms relying on truthful self-declaration to determine age with enforcement of the government’s minimum age legislation on the horizon.”
The report is based on the survey of social media usage of hundreds of kids in Australia
Researchers questioned more than 1,500 kids across Australia aged between eight and 15 about their use of social media apps and messaging services. The regulator found that 84 percent of the surveyed children had used at least one social media app or messaging service since the start of 2024. Notably, over half of these kids used these services via the account of a parent or carer.
Furthermore, 95 percent of teenagers under 16 had accounts on at least one of the surveyed platforms. That said, to safeguard the kids on social media apps, the Australian government approved a ban on social networking age for children under 16. Australian authorities plan to implement one of the strictest age-related regulations worldwide at the end of 2025.
