Australia’s under-16 social media ban has been in force since 10 December 2025, and it still does not name the apps it covers. Whether a platform is caught depends on a test rather than a list, which is why Facebook is banned and Messenger is not.
The test that decides it. A service is age-restricted if letting users interact socially is its sole purpose, or a significant one. Everything else follows from that single sentence. Messaging one friend directly is not the same thing as a feed built to keep people posting at each other, and the law treats them differently.
The ten platforms eSafety says are covered: Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube.
The ones it says are not: Discord, Messenger, Roblox, Steam, WhatsApp and YouTube Kids. Several of those are places children spend more time than the banned ones. A platform sitting outside the ban is a statement about its legal purpose, not about whether it is suitable for your child.
Six more have put their own hands up. Bluesky, Lemon8, Wizz, Yubo, BigoLive and Match’s apps, including Tinder and Hinge, have all told eSafety they consider themselves covered. The ten was never a fixed list, and it is not the complete one.
Nobody is formally in charge of the list. eSafety says it “does not have a formal role in declaring which services are age-restricted”. Platforms assess themselves against the test. eSafety publishes what it considers the position to be. A final ruling on any individual service is a matter for the courts.
The penalties have gone up. Parliament has passed a bill strengthening enforcement. The maximum fine rises to A$109.2 million, and eSafety can now demand information not only from platforms but from age-assurance providers and app stores.
Parents cannot consent their way round it. There is no permission route for a parent who decides their 14-year-old is ready. The obligation sits on the platform to keep under-16s off, not on the family to opt in or out.
What this means for you right now
If your family is in Australia, the useful exercise is not checking the banned list. It is checking the other one. When an account closes, children move to whatever is still open, and the platforms still open are the ones carrying no new obligations at all. Discord, Roblox and WhatsApp did not become safer on 10 December 2025. They became the alternatives.
Wherever you are, the thing to follow is the test rather than the ten names. Other countries drafting their own laws are copying the structure, and a test written around social interaction will always catch the feed and miss the group chat. If your child’s main online space is a game or a messaging app, a ban shaped like Australia’s would leave it untouched.
Where every country stands, with the date each entry was last checked, is in the tracker.
Platform lists checked 15 September 2026 against the eSafety Commissioner’s published position, page last updated 30 March 2026. Enforcement changes checked 1 October 2026.
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