New research from Australia’s online safety regulator has revealed just how many children down under use social media and messaging platforms.
Australia’s eSafety published a report entitled “Behind the screen”, which examined the reality of age assurance and social media access for young Australians.
The research, conducted in September 2024, revealed that 84 percent of children aged 8 to 12 had used at least one social media or messaging service since the beginning of 2024.
This was despite being under the age limit of 13+ (except for children using Family Link YouTube accounts). YouTube is the only service that allows under-13 usage when attached to a family account with parental supervision.
Social media ban
It should also be noted that this research was carried out before the country had in November 2024 passed a social media ban for children under-16.
The Australian government had celebrated the “world leading legislation” to tackle the use of social media by children and young teenagers.
This was despite the vocal opposition from the likes of Elon Musk, as well as an advocate for social media platforms.
Before the November ban, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok had stipulated that children had to be at least 13 years old to use their platforms.
The under 16 social media ban in Australia is only set to take effect at the end of 2025.
Report – 13- to 15-year-olds
But the report from Australia’s eSafety on social media usage among children aged 8 to 12, revealed just how many children had an online presence in 2024.
The report also found that 95 percent of 13- to 15-year-olds surveyed used social media in 2024.
The most popular services were YouTube (73 percent), Snapchat (63 percent), TikTok (62 percent), and Instagram (56 percent).
Facebook and Discord saw moderate use among children aged 13 to 15 (41 percent and 27 percent, respectively), with lower engagement on Twitch (12 percent) and Reddit (8 percent).
Report – 8 to 12-year-olds
But it was the widespread social media use among children under 13 that will cause the most concern.
The report found that 80 percent of 8- to 12-year-olds surveyed in Australia had used social media in 2024, despite the previous 13+ age restriction on all surveyed services.
The eSafety report also estimated that considering Australia’s population of 1.5 million 8- to 12-year-olds, it suggests that about 1.3 million children aged 8 to 12 in Australia may be using social media, highlighting potential widespread breaches of age policies.
It remains to be seen how effective Australia’s social media ban for children under 16 years old will eventually prove to be.