Australia’s landmark social media age-limit law is facing a potential major legal threat from Reddit, setting up what could become a high-profile constitutional clash between the global tech giant and the Albanese government.
The ban, coming into effect on 10 December, raises the minimum age requirement for all social media accounts from 13 to 16 across major platforms including Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Platforms that fail to comply face penalties of up to $49.5 million.
According to a report by the AFR, Reddit has engaged barrister Perry Herzfeld SC and law firm Thomas Geer as it prepares to file a High Court challenge within days. A spokesperson from Reddit told B&T, “The only decision we’ve made is to comply with the law”.
This follows Reddit’s formal announcement of compliance on 9 December to its own platform. However, the assembly of a formidable legal team strongly suggests potential legal action in the near future.
There is already a similar challenge before the High Court, lodged by the Digital Freedom Project on behalf of two 15-year-olds.
The government has spent a year promoting the new law, citing rising concerns over harmful online content and mental-health risks for young people. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese personally appealed to schoolchildren, saying the policy aims to protect them from toxic online environments. The law passed with bipartisan support after widespread public debate.
Reddit has begun taking steps to comply with the new requirement, introducing age-verification measures for new Australian users and estimating existing users’ ages for the first time. It has expressed strong concerns, warning that laws like Australia’s undermine free expression, erode privacy, and miscategorise Reddit as traditional social media despite its primarily text-based, forum-driven structure. The company argues the designation is arbitrary and groundless.
The social media ban has been met with backlash from some teens across the country, who fear the ban impedes on their freedom of political communication, ability to connect with communities and access news and information.
Ezra Sholl, writing in The Guardian, said social media gives him “a window into the outside world”. Sholl has a rare nerve condition that has left him quadriplegic and uses social media as a means to connect with people like him.
“Even now, as I come to terms with life as a quadriplegic, Instagram and TikTok offer videos, accounts and communities to remind me I’m not alone,” said Sholl. “It’s not my behaviour online that’s the issue here, yet it is kids like me who are being punished”.
Teenage TikTok content creator @_heyitszoeyandmark, commented on the hypocrisy and bereft she feels the ban imposes on her generation, “You’re taking away the way we communicate with our friends, the way that we feel connected to the world. You’re taking away our creative outlet, something that makes us happy, and here you are celebrating”.
@_heyitszoeyandmark What the actually flip #socialmediaban #australiangovernment #dobetter #syd #foryoupageofficial ♬ original sound – Zoey & Dad
As the country gears up to light up key Australian landmarks in green and yellow to recognise the introduction of a world-first social media ban for under-16s on 10 December. “We’re taught to include everyone, and when someone’s upset you celebrate that? I guess the government just doesn’t have the morals we do”.
