In a couple of weeks, Reddit and YouTube will be among the many social media sites at risk of getting banned in Australia, leaving them accessible only to those who use a VPN. This all comes from a new law amendment designed to protect children aged 16 and under from unsafe content.
Australia’s Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 changes legislation that was originally introduced in 2021. It aims to prevent online bullying and comes into effect on December 10, 2025. It might sound similar to the UK’s Online Safety Act, but there’s a key difference here in that it is on the tech companies themselves to ensure that children can’t access their services.
While you may think to yourself, “Well, I’m much older than 16, so I don’t need to worry about this,” I’m afraid you could be wrong. If these social media sites can’t find a way to properly implement a safe age verification system in time, then they potentially risk being blocked for Australia users, at least temporarily. For now, it seems likely that using one of the best VPN services could be an alternative, but that’s far from ideal. Here’s a list of sites due to be affected:
- Kick
- Snapchat
- Threads
- TikTok
- X (formerly Twitter)
- YouTube
Discord and WhatsApp seem to have been spared for now, but there’s no guarantee that they won’t be added to the list in the near future.
Anika Wells is the communications minister in Australia, and told reporters: “We have met with several of the social media platforms in the past month so that they understand there is no excuse for failure to implement this law. Online platforms use technology to target children with chilling control. We are merely asking that they use that same technology to keep children safe online.”
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, has praised the new amendment, and it makes me wonder if we’ll see similar laws rolled out across Europe in the near future. Much like the UK’s Online Safety Act, time will tell whether or not this proves an effective method of protecting children’s online safety in practice.
Our recommended VPN partner is NordVPN, which has servers all around the world. With a 30-day money-back guarantee, you’d have plenty of time to reverse the decision if you decide it’s not for you.
