• New report reveals widespread underage social media use despite platform policies
• Australian regulator finds minimal verification measures as government prepares stronger legislation

Current restrictions intended to limit underage use of social media use in Australia are failing, with a new government report revealing that children as young as eight easily circumvent age verification systems.

According to findings released by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner in February 2025, most major platforms rely solely on self-declaration of age at sign-up, creating a virtually ineffective barrier for young users.

The report combines results from a national survey examining social media use among Australian children aged 8-15 and information provided directly to the eSafety Commission by major platforms about their age restriction enforcement methods.

Responses from YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snap, Reddit, Discord, and Twitch covering January to July 2024 paint a concerning picture of minimal verification efforts. “Australian children are easily circumventing inadequate and poorly enforced minimum age rules employed by well-known social media services,” states the eSafety Commission report released on February 20, 2025. This comes as the Australian government prepares to implement new minimum age legislation by the end of 2025.

The survey identified YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram as the most popular platforms among children under 13. YouTube is the only service that officially allows supervised access to users in this age group through family accounts with parental oversight.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the scale of underage usage. The report suggests approximately 1.3 million Australian children aged 8-12 may have been using social media in 2024, “highlighting potential widespread breaches of minimum age policies.” Among this age group, YouTube was the most popular (68% of children surveyed), followed by TikTok (31%) and Snapchat (19%).

eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant expressed serious concerns about the findings. “Social media services not only need to make it harder for underage users to sign up to their services in the first place, but also make sure that users who are old enough to be on the service, but are not yet adults, have strong safety measures in place by default,” she said.

The report reveals mixed results in how platforms enforce age limits through proactive detection tools and reporting systems for underage users already on their services. “Few have any real stringent measures in place to determine age accurately at the point of sign-up,” Inman Grant said. “There’s nothing stopping a 14-year-old, for instance, entering a false age or date of birth and setting up an unrestricted adult account that doesn’t carry those extra safety features.”

The lack of verification likely means platforms are unaware of the number of children using their services. The official figures provided by platforms are already substantial: Snapchat reported nearly 440,000 users aged 13-15 out of its 8.3 million monthly active Australian users; Instagram identified around 350,000 users in this age bracket from its approximately 19 million total users; YouTube reported 325,000 users aged 13-15 from its 25+ million user base; and TikTok disclosed about 200,000 users in this demographic from nearly 10 million total users.

For Reddit, the report highlighted a particularly concerning gap – the platform “did not know how many users it had between the ages of 13-17,” raising questions about its ability to implement age-appropriate safety measures.

However, the eSafety survey found that 95% of Australian teens aged 13-15 reported using at least one of the eight surveyed social media services since January 2024, suggesting the actual numbers are likely much higher.

The report also examined how children access social platforms. Among children aged 8-12 who had used social media, 54% accessed these services via their parents’ or caregivers’ accounts, while 36% had their own accounts. Of those with personal accounts, 77% reported receiving help to set them up, primarily from parents or caregivers.

The verification methods employed by platforms raise significant concerns. According to the report, “Of the platforms, eSafety requested information from, most relied solely on someone’s truthful self-declaration of their date of birth at the point of account sign-up. No additional age assurance tools were used up front at this sign-up stage.”

That means children can create accounts without additional verification by simply entering a false birth date. The report comes as the Australian government prepares to implement stronger minimum age legislation by the end of 2025.

“We’ll be consulting with industry and other stakeholders this year about what reasonable steps platforms should be expected to take to give effect to the minimum age requirements,” Inman Grant said, adding that the report will be “one key input to that process.”

While acknowledging that age restrictions are just one component of online safety, Inman Grant emphasised the commission’s commitment to a holistic approach. “We remain committed to working with teachers, parents and young people to not only ensure they are well informed about risks but also well-equipped to thrive online by building digital literacy and resilience and providing access to meaningful, co-designed educational content and resources,” she said.

The report underscores the significant challenges ahead as Australia moves toward stricter regulation of social media platforms. With children efficiently bypassing current measures and platforms primarily relying on honour systems for age verification, effective enforcement of upcoming minimum age legislation will require substantial changes made by social media platforms, in step with legislative progress. How social media companies respond to being asked to effectively limit their user numbers remains in the future.