29/05/2026
As conversations around youth wellbeing and social media continue to grow, an important question remains:
How do we help young people understand the systems shaping their online experiences?
Digital wellbeing is not only about limiting screen time. It also involves understanding algorithms, platform design, online influence, and the environments that shape attention, behaviour, and beliefs.
At Scroll2Action, we believe digital literacy is becoming one of the most important skills young people can develop in today's world.
What do you think schools should be teaching students about social media?
We know there's a lot of interest in our progress enforcing the social media minimum age laws.
Right now, our complex investigations are ongoing, and our compliance and safety uplift work continues.
In the meantime, we wanted to answer some of the key questions you might have about that work 👇
âť“ Is eSafety concerned about how platforms are complying with the new laws?
In our March regulatory update, we indicated we were concerned about industry compliance. Since then, we have continued our investigations and seen some improvements. However, we have not yet reached a final determination on whether platforms are taking reasonable steps to prevent Australians under 16 from having accounts, which is the high standard we must prove under the legislation.
❓ Why hasn’t eSafety fined any of the companies yet?
For penalties to be ordered by a court, systemic non-compliance needs to be proven with solid evidence and complex legal proceedings. We continue to build the evidence base necessary to inform any potential enforcement action.
âť“ What improvements has eSafety seen from the companies?
Since our compliance update in March, we have seen improvements, including reversals of some of the poor implementation practices we had identified. For instance:
âś… Some platforms have recently taken steps to restrict or age verify accounts that had increased their stated age to 16 in the lead up to or shortly after 10 December.
âś… Another introduced new age verification measures, particularly when users attempt to change their date of birth, to reduce circumvention of age requirements.
✅ A platform who gave under-16s numerous tries to jail break facial age estimation systems – daily – reversed this practice.
âś… Platforms making it easier for parents to report underage social media accounts, with clearer language, better visibility, and more accessible help resources.
âś… Some of the major social media apps have increased their age rating on Apple's Australian App Store from 13+ to 16+. For parents using parental controls, this can help prevent children downloading apps that they are too young to have accounts on.
These are important developments, demonstrating that sustained regulatory pressure is making a difference. However, we have not yet completed our investigations or reached conclusions about the efficacy of these measures – that work is ongoing. So stay tuned.
