ustralia is strengthening enforcement of its social media minimum-age law, with the maximum penalty for platforms that fail to comply set to double to A$99 million.
The changes will also give Australia's eSafety Commissioner greater powers to require social media companies to provide evidence showing what they have done to comply with the law.
Since December 2025, children under 16 have been restricted from holding accounts on a number of major social media platforms. However, concerns remain that some younger users are still able to access services covered by the restrictions.
Australian authorities have opened investigations into the compliance of several major platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
The increased penalties highlight the challenge facing governments as they move from introducing age restrictions to actually enforcing them — particularly when platforms must determine users' ages while balancing privacy, accessibility and technical limitations.
Read the full article on BBC.
There's a new addiction in New Zealand - more than a third of Kiwis say they are hooked on their screens and many are blaming Covid for it. As the country enters its second week of lockdown, New Zealanders have been averaging five hours of screen time a day on top of using devices for work and school since the Covid pandemic started last year, a new NortonLifeLock study has found.
Read More
The field of internet addiction has experienced significant debates on conflicting epidemiology. This meta-analysis investigated the prevalence rates of generalized internet addiction (GIA) and internet gaming disorder (IGD).
Read More
The relationship between social media use and life satisfaction changes across adolescent development. Our analyses of two UK datasets comprising 84,011 participants (10–80 years old) find that the cross-sectional relationship between self-reported estimates of social media use and life satisfaction ratings is most negative in younger adolescents.
Read MoreScreen Sense offers personalised one-to-one support to help you better understand your digital habits and make practical, lasting changes to the way you use technology.
Sessions >
