Snapchat begins disabling accounts for under 16s to comply with Australian ban

Snapchat users deemed to be under the age of 16 are being sent warnings their accounts are about to be locked, under Australia’s world-leading social media ban. Here’s how you can get your account back if you’re over 16.

Snapchat has become the latest social media platform to tell users how it will comply with the incoming world-leading under-16s ban, with pressure on other apps to quickly follow suit.

Come December 10, platforms will have to take “reasonable steps” to keep children under 16 off their site, or face fines of up to $50m.

Snapchat said while it did not believe it should be captured by the ban because it was a messaging app, it would begrudgingly start sending out in-app notifications, texts and emails to the 440,000 under 16s with accounts, advising them they can download their data before they lose access to the platform.

Snapchat says it can identify those as underage either via declared age or the platform’s inferred age modelling signals, and will lock their account for up to three years or until the user turns 16 and reactivates their account.

If a user over 16, they can verify their age through their bank account, through uploading government-issue photo ID to a third-party site, or by taking an age-estimation selfie.

Snapchat says it will only collect a “yes/no” result on whether someone is above 16.

“While we strongly disagree with this assessment, we will comply, as we do with all local laws in countries in which we operate,” the company said in a statement.

“However, disconnecting teens from their friends and family doesn’t make them safer — it may push them to less safe, less private messaging apps.

“We continue to advocate for more privacy-conscious solutions, such as mandating age verification at the device, operating system, or app store level.”

Snapchat has begun warning under-16s that their accounts will be locked within weeks.

Snapchat’s announcement comes 16 days before the world-first laws - a result of News Corp’s Let Them Be Kids campaign - begins. Meta last week revealed that it would start removing under 16s from December 4 - six days before the law begins.

TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit, Kick, and Twitch - a streaming platform added to the list on Friday - have yet to detail how they will comply with the ban.

The Coalition’s youth spokeswoman Angie Bell on Monday accused the government of being “lost in the woods” on the details of the laws.

“We still don’t know exactly how it’s going to work when it comes to age verification and we’re a month out,” she said.

“And so, the government is lost in the woods on that. We are a year beyond since the legislation was passed and the government doesn’t know what it’s doing.

“Certainly, young people are being harmed by social media and we need to put a stop to it. But I would say that the government…doesn’t know what they’re doing. They don’t know what it’s going to look like. And so therefore, so are Australians.”

Communications Minister Anika Wells said the incoming laws would “give young people three more years to build their community and resilience in the real world, to become the best version of themselves and find out who they are before the platforms assume”.

Originally published as Snapchat begins disabling accounts for under 16s to comply with Australian ban