Australia expects to take Meta, TikTok, Snap and Google's YouTube to court for failing to comply with its social media ban for under-16s.
Communications Minister Anika Wells told Bloomberg that the eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, is using new powers to build the case. Wells named five services facing legal action: Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube. Four companies are involved, since Meta runs both Facebook and Instagram.
The move shifts the ban from a rule on paper to a test of enforcement. The law, which took effect on December 10, 2025, puts the burden on platforms rather than on children or parents. It requires companies to take reasonable steps to keep under-16s off their services, with fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars. "Reasonable steps" is a vague standard, and a court case is how vague standards get defined.
The list is also notable for its breadth. Going after five services at once suggests the regulator does not want to be seen picking a single target. YouTube's inclusion stands out because it was originally expected to be exempt from the ban, on the grounds that it is used heavily for education. It was later brought into scope.
There is a useful comparison in how tech rules usually play out. Child-safety laws elsewhere, such as age-appropriate design codes, tend to be argued over in consultations and then enforced slowly, if at all. Australia is trying to skip to the enforcement stage while other governments are still debating similar bans, so other countries will be watching what a judge makes of the platforms' age-checking efforts.
What remains open is when the case will be filed, what the regulator will ask for, and whether the platforms will argue the law is unworkable or that they have already done enough.