Australia's landmark social media ban, designed to lock hundreds of thousands of under-16s off platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, is being outsmarted by the very teenagers it targeted. Introduced just last month, the sweeping legislation has prompted a wave of ingenious, and surprisingly simple, workarounds from young Australians determined to stay connected.
The Great Digital Disappearing Act
Faced with new age verification tools that use facial or voice analysis and monitor usage patterns, teens have quickly adapted. Rather than accept being locked out, they are employing tactics to digitally age themselves. One popular method involves deliberately screwing up their faces during a facial scan, creating temporary wrinkles to fool the algorithm into thinking they are older.
Others are manipulating their digital footprints. Teens are reportedly searching for adult-centric topics online, such as contraceptive solutions, flight bookings, travel itineraries, and even care homes. This browsing history is then used by some platforms as a behavioural signal, potentially tricking the system into classifying the user as an adult.
Sophia's Story: A Case Study in Circumvention
The experience of one teenager, Sophia, illustrates the ease of bypass. When Snapchat, which had an estimated 440,000 Australian users aged 13-15 before the ban, asked her to verify her age, she simply claimed to be 16 and was granted access. Instagram posed a slightly greater challenge, leading to her now-famous wrinkling tactic.
"I was really nervous, but I scrunched my face up to get more wrinkles, so I looked older, and it worked! I wasn't thrown off," Sophia explained. Her immediate reaction was to message her friends via text—not social media—to share the successful hack. Her peer group also used their parents' dates of birth to leap over the digital barrier.
Loopholes and Parental Concerns
The law's limitations are becoming apparent. It only applies to a specific list of platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, X, and YouTube. Services like WhatsApp, Pinterest, YouTube Kids, and notably the gaming platform Roblox and chat app Discord, are not covered. Furthermore, underage users can still browse publicly available posts and videos without an account.
This has led to criticism from parents like Mareee, Sophia's mother, who questions the law's effectiveness. She points to the recent Bodi Beach stabbing as an example, noting that graphic imagery was unavoidable on television and in public discourse, not just social media. "The whole thing feels like a Band-Aid without addressing the real issue," she stated, highlighting the fragmented nature of online content regulation.
When mainstream platforms became inaccessible, Sophia and her friends simply migrated to other, less restricted apps like the picture-sharing site Yope and Lemon8, run by TikTok's parent company—though some have since introduced their own age checks. Notably, there are currently no punishments for children or parents who circumvent the ban.
The situation presents a complex challenge for policymakers. While the intent to shield young people from harmful content is clear, the rapid and creative response from tech-savvy teens demonstrates the difficulty of enforcing digital age gates in a porous online ecosystem.
