According to MacRumors, Australia’s sweeping social media ban for children under 16 takes effect on December 10, 2025. The law targets major platforms including Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube (except YouTube Kids), Snapchat, X, Twitch, Threads, and Kick. These apps must take “reasonable steps” to remove underage users and block new sign-ups from that date forward. There’s a one-year transition period before penalties and serious fines kick in. To help developers comply, Apple is highlighting tools like its Declared Age Range API and options for setting higher minimum age ranges. Australia is the first country to implement such a total ban.
How Apple’s tools work
So, what is Apple actually providing? The key piece is the Declared Age Range API. Basically, this lets an app ask the system, “Hey, what age range did this user declare when they set up their Apple ID?” It doesn’t give a precise birthday, but a range like “13-15” or “16+”. Developers can then use that to gate access. There are also tools for putting age suitability info on the App Store page and setting a higher minimum age for the app than the standard 4+ or 12+ ratings. It’s a toolkit for building a fence, using Apple’s existing age data as one of the fence posts.
The massive compliance problem
Here’s the thing: these tools are helpful, but they’re nowhere near a complete solution. They only work on iOS and iPadOS, for starters. What about Android and the web? And the API relies on the declared age—the one a kid (or their parent) typed in, possibly years ago. It’s not verified. A 14-year-old who said they were 18 when creating their account would sail right through. The law says apps must take “reasonable steps,” which is deliberately vague. Is relying solely on this API “reasonable”? Probably not. Apps will need much more aggressive age-gating, like document uploads or facial age estimation, which are clunky, invasive, and often inaccurate. This is a compliance nightmare waiting to happen.
A global experiment
Australia is essentially running a huge, real-world experiment. No other country has gone for a full ban like this. You have to wonder: what happens on December 11? Do millions of Australian teen accounts just go dark? Or will there be a mass migration to new, non-listed apps or VPNs? The law even acknowledges this, saying more apps might get added to the banned list as kids hop to new platforms. It feels like a game of whack-a-mole. And the penalties for getting it wrong are severe, which means platforms will err on the side of over-blocking. I think we’re going to see a lot of friction, a lot of frustrated users, and a very messy first year as everyone figures out what “reasonable steps” actually means.
