SYDNEY: Australia is investigating Facebook, TikTok and YouTube for possible breaches of the country&#39;s under-16 social media ban, accusing the big tech companies on Tuesday of &quot;failing to obey&quot; the world-leading laws. Australia in December banned under-16s from a raft of the world&#39;s most popular social media sites, citing the need to protect young minds from &quot;predatory algorithms&quot; filled with sex and violence. Three months since the landmark laws came into effect, Australia&#39;s online safety watchdog found a &quot;substantial proportion of Australian children&quot; were still scrolling banned platforms. &quot;Australia&#39;s world-leading social media laws are not failing. But big tech is failing to obey the laws,&quot; Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters. &quot;Australia will not let the social media giants take us for mugs.&quot; Australia&#39;s eSafety Commission flagged &quot;significant concerns&quot; about Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. &quot;None of this is impossible. None of this is even difficult for big tech, who are innovative billion-dollar companies,&quot; Wells said. &quot;If these companies want to do business in Australia, they must obey Australian laws.&quot; Australia would decide on any punishments by mid-2026. Tech companies face fines of up to $33.9 million (Aus$49.5 million) under the laws. More than five million accounts belonging to underage Australian users have been removed since the laws came into effect, the eSafety Commission said. A growing body of research suggests that too much time online is taking a toll on teen well-being. Australia&#39;s ban has been hailed as a godsend for parents sick of seeing children glued to their phones. It has also drawn interest across the globe -- with Malaysia, France, New Zealand and Indonesia among the nations now eyeing similar measures. Although social media companies have pledged to abide by the laws, they have warned that the measures could instead push teenagers into dark, unregulated corners of the internet. Prove itMeta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, said accurately proving users&#39; ages had been &quot;a challenge for the whole industry&quot;. It told AFP it would &quot;keep investing in enforcement to detect and remove under-16 accounts&quot;. Image-sharing platform Snapchat told AFP it was &quot;fully committed to implementing reasonable steps under the legislation&quot; and had so far locked 450,000 accounts. TikTok said it had no comment, while inquiries on YouTube did not receive a reply. Social media companies bear the sole responsibility for checking that Australia-based users are 16 or older. They must prove they have taken &quot;reasonable steps&quot; to weed out young teenagers, although it remains unclear how this will be interpreted by the government. Some platforms have said they would use AI tools to estimate ages based on photos, while users could also choose to prove their age by uploading a government ID. Online discussion site Reddit has filed a legal challenge against Australia&#39;s ban, which it described as &quot;legally erroneous&quot;. The US-based company said there were serious privacy concerns associated with platforms verifying age, with the collection of personal data creating a risk of leaks or hacks. Reddit&#39;s challenge is yet to be heard in Australia&#39;s High Court.

This file photo shows the icons of different social media applications. (AFP/FILE)

Gadgets

Three months since the landmark laws came into effect, Australia's online safety watchdog found a "substantial proportion of Australian children" were still scrolling banned platforms.


Australia investigates tech giants over social media ban breaches

LONDON: The British government announced Tuesday that it would stop issuing education visas to nationals from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan and work visas for Afghans as part of its broader clampdown on asylum seekers. The Home Office said there had been a surge in asylum applications by students from those countries, and almost 135,000 asylum seekers in total had entered the UK using legal routes since 2021. &quot;Britain will always provide refuge to people fleeing war and persecution, but our visa system must not be abused,&quot; said Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood in a statement. &quot;That is why I am taking the unprecedented decision to refuse visas for those nationals seeking to exploit our generosity.&quot; The Home Office said the number of asylum applications by students from Afghanistan, Cameroon, Myanmar, and Sudan had &quot;rocketed&quot; by more than 470% between 2021 and 2025. Migration has become a major issue in British politics, with the hard-right Reform UK surging in opinion polls with its anti-migration stance. Successive governments have struggled to contain small boats crossing the Channel from France, which bring large numbers of undocumented migrants. But the authorities also face pressure to reduce the number of asylum seekers entering on other routes. The Home Office said the government has &quot;reduced student asylum claims by 20% over the course of 2025, further action is needed as those arriving on study visas still make up 13% of all claims in the system&quot;.

The tail fins of British Airways planes are pictured at Heathrow Airport in west London on February 27, 2026. (AFP)

United Kingdom

London says asylum applications from students of the affected countries surged more than 470% between 2021 and 2025, with 135,000 people entering via legal routes since 2021.

Articles tagged with "Ban"

Australia investigates tech giants over social media ban breaches

UK halts study visas for Afghanistan, three other countries