Higher Penalties and Information Gathering Powers for Age-Restricted Social Media Compliance
Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026
House of Representatives
Senate
Assent
Links to official parliament websites
Effects of this bill
If this bill passes, it means that:
The Debate
What different members said when this bill was debated:
Anika Wells ALP
“I move: That this bill be now read a second time. It’s been just over six months since Australia’s world-leading law creating a minimum age for social media began. It is a law that passed this parliament with bipartisan support. In that short period of time, more than five million underage accounts have been deactivated, restricted or removed.”
Melissa McIntosh LIB
“I rise to speak on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026, and I move the second reading amendment circulated in my name: That all words after ”That” be omitted with a view to substituting the following words: ”whilst not declining to give the bill a second reading, the House: (1) recognises that the former Coalition Government delivered …”
Jo Briskey ALP
“A few weeks ago, the United Kingdom announced that it too would introduce a minimum age for social media use, and when the British government set out how it would be done it said its ban would be built, in their words, using the ’same model’ as Australia.”
Kate Chaney IND
“I rise to speak on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. Sometimes I reflect on the promise of the internet, of social media and of our digital platforms. We thought that they would be a place to connect, to cross oceans and skies, to stay in touch with family and loved ones despite the distance.”
Renee Coffey ALP
“It’s school holidays in my home state of Queensland, and, across Griffith, families will be out and about enjoying time with their kids.”
Dr RYAN
“Australia’s world-first social media ban came into force in December 2025. As of June 2026, seven countries have implemented similar bans, four countries have legislated similar restrictions and 15 countries are actively considering taking stronger action on social media. The aspiration behind this reform is something of which Australia can be proud.”
“On 10 December 2025, the Albanese Labor government launched the social media ban for children aged under 16. It captured global attention. It was lauded by world leaders as world leading, and it was celebrated by many other governments across the globe. But I want to take a moment to highlight how Australian parents and how Australian carers, the drivers of this law, reacted.”
Ms McKENZIE
“Is it any surprise that we find ourselves here? Let me start with a history lesson, because, in respect of this reform and its failures which today we are here trying to mop up, a history lesson actually matters. Back in the 46th Parliament, my friend—a strong-minded, most clever coalition MP—the member for Fisher led an inquiry into age verification for pornography and gambling sites.”
Madonna Jarrett ALP
“Growing up, I was spared what we now know as the intrusion of Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and other social media platforms. However, as my sons grew from children to adolescents, technology developed so rapidly. There was a plethora of platforms to engage with friends and others. This included online games they played with their friends and, dare I say, their online acquaintances.”
Andrew Wallace LNP
“Unfortunately, the Labor members have all just departed the chamber. It is unfortunate because they could have actually learned something. Between you, Mr Deputy Speaker Freelander, and me, with our experience in this particular area, we could teach them a lesson.”
Carol Berry ALP
“I rise today to speak in support of the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. This legislation is about one simple but vital principle: when laws are made to protect children, those laws must be strongly enforced.”
Zali Steggall IND
“Well, the government is now back in the parliament trying to strengthen enforcement for its social media age ban.”
“I certainly support the amendment put forward by the member for Lindsay in relation to the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. Today, I spoke to and listened to the Lutheran School Wagga Wagga, a primary school of children visiting on their excursion to Parliament House in Canberra. I gave to those youngsters, as I do to all school groups, two bits of advice.”
Andrew Wilkie IND
“To be clear, I will support the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. Although I didn’t support the original bill, the Online Safety Bill, legislating the media ban, we have it, it’s real, and history can’t be unwound.”
Tom Venning LIB
“The Albanese government has delivered a social media ban that gives parents false hope and fails to keep children safe online. This is not a passing critique; this is a stark reality. Today, the coalition stands before you to expose the glaring deficiencies in their approach.”
Allegra Spender IND
“I rise to speak on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026, which strengthens enforcement of the social media minimum age. This reform is overdue, and I do support it. In 2024, I spoke in support of the original minimum-age bill, which restricted access to social media for those under 16.”
Aaron Violi LIB
“This is a very important piece of legislation that is before the House. It is a clear admission of error from the Albanese Labor government and Minister Wells, but you have to give them credit, even though they won’t say that they made a mistake. It’s clear that the intent was good at the start, but the practice and the reality have not lived up to it six months later.”
Anne Webster NAT
“The government’s first duty is to protect its citizens and, arguably, its most vulnerable citizens—in this case, children. Today that duty extends into a digital world, where the playground has actually moved online and where too often it is unpoliced and unsafe. I recently received a deeply concerning account from a constituent in my electorate.”
Sophie Scamps IND
“There’s no doubt we are living through one of the fastest technological shifts in human history. A generation ago, parents worried about what their children watched on television. Today, our children carry the internet in their pockets, and they spend several hours a day online. Social media has become woven into almost every aspect of daily life.”
Sarah Henderson LIB
“The coalition is strongly focused on putting parents back in control of their children’s online safety and forcing greater transparency from big tech, but this bill is flawed and cannot be passed in its current form. Australian families deserve more choice, control and transparency online. There must be much more urgent requirements in relation to combating online harm.”
Helen Polley ALP
“I rise to speak in support of the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. This bill is about improving social media and people’s mental health. It’s about a world-leading protection for children against the largest and most powerful technology companies in the world.”
“I rise to contribute to the debate today on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. Let me say at the outset that the government’s social media ban for those under 16 has been an utter failure.”
Matt O'Sullivan LIB
“I realise we’re about to hit a hard marker in about a minute and a half, so I’ll save my substantive points on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 for when we return. I take exception to the point that Senator Hanson-Young was making that the coalition is just taking from the talking points of big tech.”
Charlotte Walker ALP
“I rise to speak on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. I think a lot of people here know that I did grow up on the internet. I remember Instagram becoming a thing, Snapchat taking off and Musical.ly turning into TikTok. Social media has been a part of almost my entire life, and I still use it.”
“The social media ban is the quintessential Albanese government policy. There was no evidence to support its implementation, but that doesn’t matter when you’re ’leading the world’, as we keep hearing so often. It was exposed to a vigorous five-day committee inquiry before being rushed through the parliament.”
David Shoebridge GRN
“Here we go again—the fiction that the social media age ban is working. We see the government continuing to trumpet this broken policy as one of their most significant achievements. It’s depressing to watch a government go out and do this in the face of all of the evidence that we have that says it’s not working.”
“Officially, the Online Safety Management (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 amends the Online Safety Act 2021 to strengthen the operation of the social media minimum age framework, the SMMA.”
Mehreen Faruqi GRN
“The Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 is supposed to be about keeping children safe online, but it barely scratches the surface of the much uglier truth. Something deeply disturbing is happening to our young people. A teenage boy opens TikTok or YouTube looking for gym videos or gaming clips.”
Tyron Whitten PHON
“I rise to speak on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. Handing the eSafety Commissioner the power to demand documents from any person in relation to the social media ban was cause enough for alarm. That power already reached past the platforms; it reached into households. On the face of the drafting, that included children.”
Jacqui Lambie JLN
“We are debating the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026 because this government is obsessed with rushing legislation through parliament, even when it comes to our children, before it has been properly debated and worked through. This bill is supposed to strengthen enforcement of the social media minimum age.”
Slade Brockman LIB
“Let me start by saying that, whilst I appreciate the passion from Senator Lambie and I know it’s coming from a good place, I find it very difficult to understand how you can criticise the Liberal Party for opposing certain aspects of the government’s legislation in this place while at the same time saying how bad that legislation actually is, how ill thought out it is, how it’s rushed through this…”
Nita Green ALP
“I want to begin by thanking senators who’ve contributed to the debate on the Online Safety Amendment (Strengthening Enforcement for the Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2026. Of course, I should reflect that it’s been a wide-ranging debate, and that is understandable. This is a public policy area of great interest to all senators.”