With a kids social media ban recently legislated, Australia’s internet regulator eSafety is setting out to quantify just how widely used these platforms are among tweens and teens. 

Drawing on a survey of 1,049 Australian tweens (ages eight to 12) and 455 teens (ages 13 to 15), its new Behind the Screen report emphasizes the need for platforms to improve their age-checking systems, which currently consist of simply asking users to self-declare their age while signing up. A full 80% of tween respondents reported using one or more social media services in 2024, which could indicate that there are 1.3 million social media users under the age of 13 in the country.

YouTube (68%), TikTok (31%) and Snapchat (19%) ranked as the most popular services among these young users, and eSafety reached out to all three (plus Discord, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit and Twitch) to prepare its report. The regulator found that some platforms (TikTok, Twitch, Snapchat and YouTube) were implementing tools to “proactively detect” under-13s on their platforms, with help from AI and language analysis technology. But one potential hurdle eSafety underlined was the process for users to report someone they believe might be underaged. While it found that some platforms offered a straightforward pathway, others had more barriers. 

The true tally of kids on social media may be much higher than the platforms are currently estimating, says eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant. SnapChat says 440,000 of its 8.3 million monthly active users in Australia are 13 to 15 years old, followed by 350,000 of Instagram’s 19 million, 325,000 of YouTube’s 25 million, and 200,000 of TikTok’s 10 million.

eSafety will be consulting with many stakeholders this year to identify the steps platforms should take to meet the minimum age requirements, and this report is a key starting point for that process, adds Grant. “[It] shows that there is a tremendous amount of work to be done between now and December.”

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