Australia made a rule in December 2025 that social media platforms must stop children under 16 from making accounts. The platforms must take steps to prevent this, or they will be fined. The fine was $49.5 million, but it was increased to $99 million.

A government minister said that social media platforms are not doing enough to follow the rules.

Testers found that social media platforms did not ask for proof of age when they made 50 fake accounts. The platforms did not check if the users were really 16 years old.

A tester said that social media platforms should ask users to prove their age, but they did not.

The testers made accounts on Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. One account was shown adult content, even though it said the user was 16.

Google and Snap did not comment on the issue. TikTok also did not comment.

A Meta spokesperson said that the test was not consistent with Australia's rules. The spokesperson also said that it was unclear if the fake accounts acted like real users under 16.

An Australian streaming platform called Kick did not let the testers make accounts without proof of age. Kick said it cannot guess users' ages based on their behavior.

Social media bans like Australia's are criticized because they are hard to enforce. They may also violate free speech and expression. However, more countries plan to make similar bans.

The topic is about social media.