澳大利亚实施全球首个未满16岁青少年社交媒体禁令一个月后，执行效果呈现出数量显著但执行不均的特征。政府表示，禁令自12月10日生效后一周内，约470万个账户被“停用、处理或下线”。该措施覆盖10个主要平台。Meta报告称，其在12月4日至11日期间移除了54.4万个账户。澳大利亚共有约250万名8至15岁的儿童，其中去年8至12岁群体中84%拥有社交媒体账户。

实际使用情况显示，年龄验证存在漏洞。14岁的Lewis通过将年龄申报为16岁并完成面部扫描继续使用Snapchat，其同龄人中多人通过扫描年长亲友的面孔绕过限制。相反，那些最初如实填写出生日期的用户在禁令实施后立即被封禁。YouTube在部分案例中未触发任何验证。12岁的Jude最初成功注册，但两周后被封号，重复尝试失败。9岁的Sunni的YouTube账户被删除，只能通过电视访客模式观看内容。

行为层面出现变化但并非完全脱离设备。儿童总体屏幕使用时间下降，转向吉他、户外活动和家庭娱乐，但假期缺乏学校与课外活动使设备仍用于社交联系。监管机构称，影响需以“数年”为尺度评估，并将继续推动更严格的年龄保障技术，指出当前基于面部年龄估计且缺乏活体检测的系统容易产生误判。

One month after Australia implemented the world’s first social media ban for children under 16, enforcement shows large headline numbers but uneven effectiveness. The government said about 4.7 million accounts were “deactivated, actioned, or decommissioned” within a week of the Dec. 10 rollout, covering 10 major platforms. Meta reported removing more than 544,000 accounts between Dec. 4 and 11. Australia has about 2.5 million children aged 8 to 15, and 84% of those aged 8 to 12 had social media accounts last year.

User experiences reveal verification gaps. Fourteen-year-old Lewis continued using Snapchat by claiming to be 16 and passing a facial scan, while many peers bypassed checks by scanning older relatives’ faces. Those who had truthfully entered birthdates were immediately removed once the ban began. In some cases, YouTube triggered no checks at all. Twelve-year-old Jude initially gained access but was banned two weeks later, with subsequent attempts failing. Nine-year-old Sunni lost her YouTube account and now relies on a television guest mode.

Behavioral shifts are evident but partial. Overall device use has declined, with more time spent on music, outdoor activities, and family outings, yet holidays without school or extracurriculars mean devices remain important for communication. Regulators say impacts must be measured over years, not weeks, and plan tighter age-assurance requirements, noting that facial age estimation without liveness testing is prone to false results.