Australia’s Teen Social Media Ban Exposes Age Verification Gap

A Reuters-linked study found that after Australia’s under-16 social media ban took effect, 50 test accounts that declared themselves as 16 were not asked to provide proof of age by major platforms, highlighting gaps in age-verification, enforcement and privacy trade-offs; only one platform (Kick) refused account creation without verification, and the findings raise questions about layered checks, circumvention by youths, and regulatory effectiveness.