Simply weeks earlier than Australia’s social media ban for customers beneath 16 takes impact, the nation’s watchdog, eSafety, has added Twitch to the record of banned platforms.
Pinterest, nevertheless, was excluded, consistent with Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age (SMMA) guidelines.
Twitch will not permit Australians beneath 16 to create accounts beginning December 10, a Twitch spokesperson instructed TechCrunch. Current accounts for customers beneath 16 will probably be deactivated on January 9. Globally, Twitch is open to customers 13 and older, and anybody beneath the authorized age of maturity of their area should have a dad or mum or guardian concerned, the spokesperson stated.
Pinterest didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Australia’s eSafety said that Twitch is categorized as an “age-restricted social media platform” as a result of the service is constructed round on-line social interplay and engagement options like live-streaming. Pinterest, alternatively, is especially used for accumulating pictures and concepts, so it isn’t included within the age-restricted guidelines.
Australia has stated its underage social media ban, which can go into impact on December 10, will apply to Meta‘s Fb, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, YouTube (besides YouTube Kids and Google Classroom), Reddit, and the native streaming service, Kick. These platforms will probably be required to dam account entry for customers beneath 16, in accordance with a press release by the web regulator.
A few yr in the past, Australia handed a legislation banning social media use for kids beneath 16. On the time, main tech corporations like Google and Meta referred to as on the federal government to delay enforcement till the nation completed its age-verification trial.
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The regulator offers a self-assessment tool to assist platforms decide if they need to observe the SMMA guidelines.
Different international locations, together with the U.S. and the U.Okay., are taking related steps to manage who sees what content material on the Web, although their approaches differ. Twenty-four U.S. states have up to now enacted age-verification laws as of August 2025. Utah turned the primary to require app shops to confirm customers’ ages and acquire parental consent for minors downloading apps.
The U.Okay.’s Online Safety Act got here into impact in July, mandating social media and different on-line platforms to dam youngsters’s entry to dangerous content material or face large fines. The U.K. requires strong age checks for high-risk content material, like self-harm and consuming dysfunction content material, to guard customers beneath 18.
