Eight in 10 young people in Australia are still using social media despite a ban for under-16s that came into force in December, a new study has found — raising troubling questions for Keir Starmer’s plan to introduce a similar restriction in the UK by early spring 2027.
Researchers at Australia’s University of Newcastle surveyed 408 children aged 12 to 17 before the ban took effect and again three months later. They found that 85% of participants under 16 reported continuing to use platforms covered by the ban, most under their own accounts.
“85% of Australian under-16s still use social media despite ban, study finds, casting doubt on UK plans.”
The study, published in The BMJ, warned that age verification checks were being bypassed and admitted there was so far “insufficient evidence to conclude that exposure to the Act had any early substantial effects on social media use” among under-16s.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said they had encountered some form of age verification — most commonly a self-declared age or uploading a photo. But almost a fifth said they used a fake account to get around the restrictions, while around 10% reported using a private browser.
“The findings suggest that the period immediately after introduction of the Act was characterised by limited implementation, incomplete compliance, and substantial circumvention of social media restrictions,” the paper stated.
The researchers acknowledged the ban was still relatively new and suggested it could be a decade before the full impact was known. But they described their findings as giving “key early insights that can guide government refinement and future actions to promote health and wellbeing”.
Separate research by the Molly Rose Foundation previously suggested three in five (61%) Australian 12- to 15-year-olds still had access to one or more accounts on restricted platforms.
The news comes just days after Starmer unveiled a social media ban for under-16s in the UK, which he admitted would not be a “silver bullet”, comparing it to how children still find ways around the under-18s alcohol ban. The latest Australian data suggests that comparison may be prescient — with the vast majority of youngsters already proving adept at sidestepping the new rules.