Australia’s under-16s social media ban has proven wildly popular among parents, but nevertheless it was ill conceived and comes with worrying trade-offs. It has now been a month since Australia’s under‑16 social media ban—officially known as the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024—came into effect. I originally wrote this piece before the ban commenced on 10 December 2025, setting out my predictions for how it would play out. The law puts the onus on social media companies to ensure that all users are above sixteen. What I didn’t foresee is that the major social media platforms, which collect data from users at every keystroke, already know how old people are.