Credit: Jay Openiano on Unsplash
Australia expects to take Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google’s YouTube to court over its social media ban for under-16s. Communications Minister Anika Wells told Bloomberg that the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is using new powers to build the case.
Wells named Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube as the five services facing legal action, in an interview in Sydney with Bloomberg’s Angus Whitley. No case has been filed yet.
“Now she has more powers to be able to gather the evidence that she needs to take those five companies to the Federal Court,” Wells told Bloomberg. “She’s now using those powers to prepare her case.”
A ban that teens have kept getting around
The ban has been in force since December 2025. eSafety opened investigations into platform compliance in March. Data published in August put the fall in teen TikTok use at one percentage point.
The platforms say they are complying. Meta said in August that it had removed access to more than 750,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts in Australia that it judged to belong to under-16s. It uses AI to scan posts, bios and captions for clues such as birthday parties or school grades.
Meta also said where it thinks age checks should happen.
“Our primary concern is that platforms are not taking a consistent approach to how they are removing teens. There should be a single reliable age signal delivered at the operating system or app store level,” Meta wrote.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said Apple’s chief executive backed the ban.
Wells wants a global alliance
Wells is also building a coalition of countries to press the biggest tech companies on child safety, she told Bloomberg in a separate exclusive interview. She has held talks with counterparts in Malaysia, the Philippines, New Zealand, Canada, Sweden and the UK, with more lined up in the coming weeks.
“These are the most resourced, powerful companies in the world,” Wells said. “It’s going to take a coalition of lawmakers working together across the globe to take them on.”
Her template is the Digital Duty of Care bill, which the government proposed last week. It would require digital services, from social media to AI chatbots, to protect under-18s from abuse, bullying and pornography. Providers would have to assess the risks to users every year.
The bill would also let users switch off algorithmic feeds. Breaches would carry fines of up to A$109.2m ($76.2m). Wells wants it passed by the end of the year, with the law taking effect 12 months later.
The Australian Greens want fines set as a share of global revenue, and a right for people harmed online to sue. Wells said she would consider both. The Trump administration has already objected to the bill, warning that Australia’s rules on US tech companies risk spreading overseas.
“We are fighting a communications war as well as an enforcement battle,” Wells said.
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