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Australia moves to Sue Meta, TikTok and YouTube over failure to enforce under-16 Social Media ban. Australia is preparing legal action against Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube over alleged failures to enforce its ban on social media accounts for users under 16, escalating a dispute over whether technology companies are doing enough to verify users' ages. Communications Minister Anika Wells announced the planned litigation in an interview with Bloomberg published October 20. The lawsuit has not yet been filed. [1] [2]. Section 63D requires platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent age-restricted users from having accounts [[1]] [[2]]. Meta and eSafety offered no immediate comment. Snap, TikTok and Google did not reply to Bloomberg [[1]] [[2]]. Penalties and investigative powers. The maximum penalty for breaching Section 63D began at A$49.5 million and was doubled six months after the ban took effect to A$109.2 million, or about US$76 million [[1]] [[2]]. Courts could order fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($33 million) for systemic failures to comply, according to earlier reporting [[3]]. As of September 12, 2026, the eSafety Commissioner can demand information and documents from any person believed to hold them and can summon individuals to appear and be examined on oath or affirmation [[1]] [[2]]. Refusal to answer carries a penalty of imprisonment for 12 months [[1]] [[2]]. The powers extend to current and former employees of companies under investigation [[1]] [[2]]. Wells said at the National Press Club on October 15 that the law is not failing; platforms are failing to comply with the law. She added that the government will not flinch at holding tech companies to account [[1]] [[2]]. The law bars platforms from requiring government ID or Digital ID unless they offer alternative means that are reasonable in the circumstances [[1]] [[2]]. Australian authorities said in September 2025 that social media platforms should not demand age verification for all account holders starting from the outset [[4]]. Compliance data and investigation timeline. When eSafety launched the investigation in March 2026, it said five investigations were underway and 23 notices had been issued to 10 platforms, with a planned enforcement decision by the middle of 2026 [[1]] [[2]]. The regulator said enforcement would require evidence that was more than simply showing that a platform still has some children aged under 16, and that what counts as reasonable is ultimately a question for the courts [[1]] [[2]]. Meta said it removed access to more than 750,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts in Australia [[1]] [[2]]. In January 2026, reports said Meta had deleted nearly 550,000 accounts within weeks, including approximately 330,000 Instagram profiles, 173,000 Facebook accounts, and 40,000 Threads accounts [[5]]. Australia was described as the first country to enforce a sweeping ban on social media access for children under 16, resulting in the shutdown of nearly five million accounts in the first weeks [[6]]. A parent survey cited in the report found around 7 in 10 reported their child still had an account on Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok [[1]] [[2]]. A University of Chicago working paper cited in the report found about 73% of 14- and 15-year-olds covered by the ban were still using the banned platforms [[1]] [[2]]. A study published in the British Medical Journal cited in the report described the ban as having limited implementation, incomplete compliance and substantial circumvention [[1]] [[2]]. A separate Reuters report said platforms sought no age proof for any of the 50 tests [[7]]. Reddit and the Digital Freedom Project went to the High Court to challenge the law, saying it imposes intrusive and potentially insecure verification processes on adults as well as minors. References. * Australia Set to Sue Facebook, TikTok in Child-Safety Push. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-10-20/australia-to-sue-facebook-tiktok-for-alleged-breaches-of-ban * Australia's Social Media Age Verification Law Demands Aren't Working, So It's Going to Court. https://reclaimthenet.org/australia-social-media-age-ban-court-case * Meta, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube aren't fully complying with child account ban, Australia says. https://apnews.com/article/australia-social-media-ban-children-58c50c845d96057b39529e988bd778bc * Australia warns social media platforms against age verification for all ahead of a ban on children. https://apnews.com/article/australia-chldren-banned-social-media-2bbc1f2921af4f008215c16d5e8b3506 * Digital purge: Meta deletes 550000 accounts as Australia's social media ID law reshapes the internet - NaturalNews.com, January 15, 2026. * Australia blocks 5 million underage social media accounts in landmark crackdown - NaturalNews.com, January 17, 2026. * Australia's teen social media ban fails to clear first hurdle in age checks, says study. https://www.reuters.com/world/australias-teen-social-media-ban-fails-clear-first-hurdle-age-checks-says-study-2026-07-07/ Explainer infographic. 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Taking back the algorithm: Social media platforms are restoring users' control of their feeds. By Clare Duffy, CNN New York (CNN) - As a new mom-to-be, my social media feeds have clocked me - funneling endless videos my way about pregnancy, nursery prep and birth stories, to the point of baby information overload. I needed a break. I recently told my Instagram algorithm I'm no longer interested in seeing content about "pregnancy" or "birth," although at least for now I've kept its suggestion to show me "newborn parenting hacks." Instagram this year expanded its feature that lets users provide this kind of specific feedback to tailor their feed. And across the social media ecosystem, platforms are increasingly offering similar options to give users greater control over what they see as they scroll. It's something users have been asking for after social platforms spent years leaning into relying on their own algorithmic recommendations to populate feeds. In addition to Meta's Instagram and Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and smaller social media upstarts like Divine have all recently rolled out features to let users tailor their main "For You" pages, or create custom feeds around specific topics. "What we've really tried to focus on is: how can we recreate the sense of agency that you had when you were controlling the accounts that you followed, but in a world that still gives you the benefits of recommendations," such as more easily discovering new content, Instagram's Vice President of Product Tessa Lyons told CNN. Advances in AI's understanding of language make it possible for the platforms to process specific feedback from users about their interests and dislikes, rather than simply making guesses based on what users view and engage with. "We're able to do something we're never able to do before, which is actually enable people to use human language... to say, like, I want to see more of this topic or less of this topic," Lyons said, adding that previously, "we were not able to accurately enough understand that if you said 'tennis,' what the most relevant tennis content was." It's a stark reversal from the approach major platforms had taken in recent years: replacing chronological feeds based on who users followed with algorithmic recommendations. The thinking was that - thanks to the huge volume of data social media companies collect about users through their activity on and off their sites - these platforms could predict better than users themselves what they'd want to see and what would keep them scrolling. The shift may have been good for business, but users often lamented that lack of control, complaining that the recommendation algorithms could send them down rabbit holes of irrelevant or even toxic content. Platforms have faced particular scrutiny related to their sometimes harmful content recommendations for young people. That user frustration has only ramped up over the past year as AI has played a growing role in mediating what people see across the internet, colliding with a wider populist backlash to AI, said Tim Weninger, a computer science and engineering professor at the University of Notre Dame who studies AI and social media. "People have gotten fed up with AI feeding them stuff," Weninger said. "They miss the old days... They just want to be able to follow what they follow and see the latest updates." Returning control to users. In 2022, Instagram brought back the chronological feed as an option with "following" and "favorites" feeds that would show users only content from accounts they opted to see, although the app defaulted to the main recommended feed each time a user opened it. Then last June, TikTok introduced a "manage topics" feature that lets users tweak their main feed by adjusting how much content they want to see from certain categories - such as fashion and beauty, or health and fitness - on a sliding scale. The tool doesn't remove certain topics from the feed altogether, but it does give TikTok's algorithm a more direct signal on what users want to see. TikTok also added "smart keyword filtering," which removes from the feed any videos containing a keyword that a user has flagged, plus those containing similar, related keywords. Months later, Instagram took the trend a step further by rolling out "your algorithm," which lets users see which topics the app believes they're interested in and add topics they want to see, as well as those they want to avoid. The feature, which was originally rolled out just for the Reels tab, now applies to the full Instagram app and recently expanded to Facebook. The feature makes it easier for the app to adjust when users' interests change quickly - for example, someone may no longer want to see wedding planning content after they're married, or videos of their ex-boyfriend's favorite band after a breakup, Lyons said. Her "your algorithm" selections currently include topics like "family rituals" and "Celine Dion." In the coming months, Instagram plans to prompt users to engage more with the feature, which is currently accessible via a button on the upper righthand side of the Reels tab. YouTube last month announced its own "custom feeds" offering at its annual "Made on YouTube" product launch event, which lets users create dedicated tabs alongside the main feed tailored to specific needs or interests, such as workout videos or "late night ASMR." But these features may not necessarily enable social media users to prevent AI-generated content from popping up in their feeds. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan told reporters at the September event that separating AI-generated from human-made content is an "artificial distinction," and that many videos combine both. YouTube's custom feeds feature, he said, is instead really about letting viewers "program their feeds" around certain topics and "dial up and dial down what you'd like to see, and you can change it throughout the course of the day." It remains to be seen exactly how these changes will impact users, Weninger said. While users may tell a platform that they want to see content on topics they enjoy, people are often more likely to view, comment on or share content that upsets or angers them, which could confuse the algorithms. "If you say that you like soccer, and then you never actually watch a soccer video, then what's the AI supposed to do?" he said. "People engage with things that make them upset and sad, that's kind of part of our nature. Hopefully this will change that attitude a little bit."

TikTok staff reportedly sounded the alarm on child safety, but execs didn't act. Oct 21, 2026 Court records cited by NPR suggest TikTok employees were frustrated that executives didn't act on child safety problems, including teens bypassing age restrictions and blocking parental oversight. TikTok says the report was cherry-picked by trial lawyers to mislead the public about its commitment to youth safety. Social media can be fun and educational, but it can also be dangerous. In fact, platforms like TikTok have been accused of failing to include proper controls for child safety. Was this an oversight on TikTok's part? Or was it intentional? According to TikTok employees, they knew about child safety issues, but executives reportedly failed to act on them. TikTok employees say execs failed to act on child safety issues. As it stands, TikTok is facing questions by governments and regulators over what they're doing to tackle child safety. Now, a report from NPR suggests that TikTok was aware but did nothing. This is according to court records, which revealed that TikTok employees were frustrated over child safety issues and how company executives failed to act appropriately on them. This included how users under 18 were using loopholes to bypass age-restricted content. They also found ways to block parents and guardians from reviewing their activity. The documents also suggest that TikTok was concerned about having to answer to the FTC. And thus refrained from conducting surveys to assess the age of its users. However, TikTok seems to disagree with those findings. In a statement made by TikTok spokesperson Nathaniel Brown, he claims that the details in NPR's report were "clearly cherry-picked at the behest of trial lawyers and used to inaccurately rewrite our history and mislead the public about our commitment to youth safety and how our platform works." Not TikTok's first rodeo. That being said, this isn't the first time concerns have been raised over child safety on TikTok. Just last month, TikTok agreed to a $100 million settlement with the state of Alabama over "addiction" allegations. As a result, TikTok would have to implement various safety features such as imposing two-hour daily limits, productive pauses, and nighttime access.