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Australia’s under-16 social media ban: How children are already finding ways around it

Australia’s world-leading ban on social media for under-16s has removed millions of accounts, but early evidence suggests tech-savvy teenagers are already finding easy ways back in.

READ MORE : http://www.euronews.com/2026/01/29/australias-under-16-social-media-ban-how-children-are-already-finding-ways-around-it

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00:00You
00:15So what are you actually...
00:20What are you trying to do, Ash?
00:21Because it's a problem with you.
00:23Hey, it worked?
00:28Oh, yeah, I think it worked.
00:30It worked.
00:31Oh, yeah, no.
00:32It worked?
00:33Let me in.
00:34Let you in.
00:36The first day it was released, I was sent a doc which explained how to get past it.
00:40There's no real point, really, because I just find more workarounds.
00:45I had an evil instinct.
00:46It worked hard to do.
00:47I had an evil instinct.
00:50I was told to get past it.
00:52numbers have told us is that a large number of the accounts have been closed down.
00:57Upwards of 4.7 million accounts across various plants.
01:02However, some young people, in fact a lot of young people, have accounts
01:07on multiple platforms. So how many kids are actually included in that 4.7?
01:12We don't know for sure.
01:17All of the parents that I've spoken to have found that
01:22there's no real difference. Some of them think that their kids
01:27don't use the apps like a teenager.
01:32So one of my friends commented,
01:34basically my daughter's like a 50 year old woman when she's on it.
01:37Instagram.
01:42So the concern is these workarounds
01:47are going to like, may mean, let me say may mean,
01:50that kids are both
01:52online in these spaces now with even less regulation and oversight, they may
01:57be less likely to tell caretakers or parents if they encounter...
02:02negative things online since they're not supposed to be there.
02:05And then the idea that a lot...
02:07a lot of these kids seem to be moving to alternative sites,
02:10which are potentially even more risky with...
02:12less oversight.
02:17I don't think there's any good way to do it.
02:20It's like, it's there, they're gonna use...
02:22I don't know.
02:23Just make the outside more entertaining maybe.
02:26Like...
02:27stuff more accessible for people.
02:32...
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