Australia doubled the maximum penalty imposed on social media companies that fail to comply with the ban on under-16 users, as evidence grew that children are circumventing restrictions.
Canberra introduced its first-in-the-world legislation in December, blocking all children from all major platforms. Since then, dozens of other countries have begun moving toward, or implementing, similar plans.
Teens, however, have found inventive ways around the laws, whether by drawing on a mustache to fool age-verification scans or using VPNs.
A study followed 400 children before and after the ban was introduced, and found relatively little change in social media use rates. The authors concluded that the ban was “unlikely” to have its intended positive effects on teen mental health.