---
title: "Australia's ban at six months: the lesson is patience"
description: "Australia removed 4.7 million under-16 accounts and is now legislating again because children still get through. What six months teach UK parents."
canonical: https://parentalcontrols.co.uk/news/australia-ban-six-months
---

Ban news

# Six months into Australia's ban, the lesson for UK parents is patience

The country the UK is copying removed 4.7 million under-16 accounts, and is now legislating again because children are still getting through.

![](/assets/anna-moss.jpg)

By **[Anna Moss](/about)** · Manchester mum of one

Updated 30 June 2026

[Ban hub](/ban)

Australia's under-16 ban (the world's first, and the explicit model for the UK's) took effect on 10 December 2025. Within a week, platforms had removed access to[4.7 million under-16 accounts](https://www.esafety.gov.au/about-us/industry-regulation/social-media-age-restrictions). Six months on, the honest scorecard reads: it mostly works, children still get through, and the government is legislating again.

In late June, [new legislation went to the Australian Parliament](https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/australia-social-media-kids-new-legislation-9.7252325) to sharpen enforcement, giving the eSafety Commissioner more power to pursue non-compliant platforms in court. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's assessment was blunt: too many children are still on social media, and the companies aren't doing enough.

For UK families, three usable lessons. First, the cliff edge was survivable. The predicted mass migration to darker corners of the internet has so far looked more like a trickle, and Australian parents mostly report calmer arguments, not worse ones. Second, workarounds are real: VPNs, older siblings' logins and simply lying about age all still work sometimes, which is why device-level controls stay relevant even after a ban. Third, enforcement is a process, not an event. Australia is on its second round of legislation within a year, and the UK should expect the same iteration.

The UK's version is due in force by spring 2027 and goes further in places: livestreaming blocks and stranger-contact restrictions on top of the account ban. What Australia's six months suggest is that spring 2027 will be the start of the story here, not the end. The[ban hub](/ban) tracks it.

What this means for you

A ban reduces exposure; it doesn't end supervision. The families coping best in Australia set up device-level controls before the ban and kept them afterwards. Our[setup guides](/guides) cover the free options.