Teens outsmarting Australia’s social media ban by wrinkling their faces to look older
Australia might have banned all children under 16 from social media last month, but that doesn’t mean all youngsters are offline for good.
The country’s sweeping law theoretically locked hundreds of thousands of teens from Snapchat, TikTok and Instagram by enforcing age restrictions.
But teens told the MailOnline how they’ve outsmarted these companies’ new age verification tools in rather simple ways.
Rather than just relying on a user’s self-reported age, platforms use tools like facial or voice analysis or seeing if use is consistent with school hours.
So, to bypass this, teens are Googling contraceptive solutions, flights, travel and even care homes to trick platforms into thinking they’re older.
Others are screwing up their faces to make it look like they’ve got wrinkles if an app asks to scan their face.
About 440,000 young Australian teens, aged 13 to 15, used Snapchat before the ban – yet Sophia remains one of them.
When the app asked her to verify her age, she worried that she would lose an app that she said was vital to staying in touch with her friends.
But she simply said she was 16, and Sophia says the app let her through.
She did have some trouble on Instagram, though, saying: ‘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.
‘I sent all my friends a message, not on Snapchat or Instagram, but on text messages telling them what I’d done.’
Sophia’s friends also used their parents’ date of birth to leap over the ban.
There are no punishments for children or parents who continue to access social media despite the ban.
Only a specific list of social media platforms are affected by the law: Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube.
So, when logging into their accounts no longer seemed possible, Sophia says she and her friends made accounts with different platforms instead.
Among them was the picture-sharing site Yope and Lemon8, run by TikTok’s parent company, which has since enforced age limitations.
One reason politicians brought the ban forward was to prevent young people from accessing harmful content.
Sophia’s mum, Mareee, however, says that when Australia was rocked by the Bodi Beach stabbing, it was impossible not to see the graphic imagery.
She said: ‘The footage was everywhere – TV, shops, people talking. Social media isn’t the only place kids see the world.’
Mareee also questioned why some firms are not covered by the ban, such as the gaming platform Roblox or the video game chat app Discord.
Others, such as WhatsApp, Pinterest and YouTube Kids, can be used by young Aussies as safety officials said they are for messaging or gaming.
Underage users can also still browse posts and videos openly available to those without an account.
Maree added: ‘The whole thing feels like a Band-Aid without addressing the real issue.’
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