What to know about Australia's social media ban

Sydney: There are an estimated 4,40,000 young Australian teens, ages 13 to 15, on Snapchat. On Instagram, 3,50,000 in that age group are active users, and on TikTok, 2,00,000. Even Facebook -- not exactly squarely in the Gen Alpha zeitgeist -- reportedly has 1,50,000.

Come Wednesday, those numbers are supposed to drastically change under a landmark law that will require users in Australia to be at least 16 to have accounts on those platforms and other social media services.

The rollout of the law, kinks and all, will be closely watched by parents, researchers and government officials around the world. Australia's experience may serve as a template for authorities in other places -- including Denmark, the European Union and Malaysia -- planning to impose similar restrictions, or a cautionary tale of the potential pitfalls.

Here is how the law is expected to work.

What social media services are covered by the law?

The platforms currently affected by the law are Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube. Other services widely used by young teens were excluded because Australia's eSafety commissioner deemed them to be primarily for messaging or gaming, including: Discord, Messenger, Pinterest, Roblox, WhatsApp and YouTube Kids. Regulators say they will continue to monitor and review the services and may add to the list of age-restricted apps.

How will the platforms verify users' age?

The burden is on the respective tech companies to deactivate younger users by utilizing an array of age estimation and verification technologies at their disposal, in addition to the user's self-reported age. Regulators have said the companies may rely on factors like how long the account has been active; whether it interacts with other underage users; facial or voice analysis; or activity patterns consistent with school hours. Phones are already banned in all Australian schools.

The law specifies that the platforms cannot require users to provide government identification as the only option to verify their age, a response to privacy concerns.

What if you're not logged in to an account?

Underage users will continue to be able to access posts or videos that are openly available to those without an account. Even so, the government says barring young children from having accounts will spare them from the apps' most harmful design features, like the algorithms or push notifications that are central to their addictive potential.

What do the companies say?

Tech companies have criticized the law as being rushed and poorly designed, saying teens will no longer benefit from features that they have been introducing to make their platforms a safer place, like parental controls or teen-specific accounts.

Most have said they still intend to comply with the law and deactivate hundreds of thousands of accounts belonging to young teens.

What are the penalties?

There are no punishments for children or parents who continue to access social media after the law takes effect. The companies can face fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (about $33 million) for not taking reasonable steps to prevent users younger than 16 from having accounts on their platforms. When and how those fines will be triggered has not been made clear publicly.

What is behind the law?

In promoting the law, Australian officials have highlighted concerns about social media being a vehicle for online bullying, an amplifier of anxiety, a conduit of peer pressure and a tool for potential predators. They have highlighted the experiences of parents who lost children to mental illness and suicide, which the families believed were aggravated and facilitated by social media. Officials have insisted on calling it a delay, rather than a ban, likening it to age restrictions on alcohol, tobacco and driving.

What do the teens say?

In a large-scale survey of 9- to 16-year-olds by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., the nation's public broadcaster, the vast majority of teens said that they did not think the ban would work, and that they did not think it was a good idea. Three-quarters of all children polled said they intended on continuing to use social media. In the weeks leading up to the ban, photo-sharing or messaging apps similar to the restricted services were among the top apps downloaded in Australia.

Two 15-year-olds have filed a constitutional challenge to the law in the state of New South Wales, contending that it infringes on teens' rights of freedom and participation in political communication.