Key facts
- Reddit and the Digital Freedom Project seek to overturn the ban, with hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday.
- Ten platforms were required to deactivate or suspend accounts of users determined to be under 16.
- Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said more than 5 million accounts have been suspended across the 10 services.
- The government is challenging the standing of the Digital Freedom Project to bring the case.
- The eSafety commissioner is investigating whether five platforms are complying with the ban.
- Companies could face fines of up to nearly $100 million a breach if the regulator takes a case to federal court.
Reddit and the Digital Freedom Project, an advocacy group led by New South Wales state Libertarian MP John Ruddick, are seeking to overturn Australia's under-16 social media ban in the high court, with hearings scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Nearly 11 months before the hearings, 10 platforms, including Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Kick, X, Twitch and Threads, were required to deactivate or suspend accounts of users they determined to be under 16. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said more than 5 million accounts across the 10 services have been suspended as part of the ban.
The case largely focuses on whether preventing under-16s from holding a social media account impermissibly burdens the implied freedom of political communication in Australian law, as Australia does not have a guaranteed right to freedom of speech. Reddit argued in its submission that online platforms are a common source of news and political information in Australia, pointing to its Ask Me Anything sessions and stating that teens would be unable to post on politics, comment on political content, or engage with the social media accounts of youth wings of major political parties.
The Australian government argued in its defense that the law serves the legitimate purposes of reducing the risk of harm to under-16s from harmful platform features including algorithms, infinite scroll, persistent notifications and likes. The Digital Freedom Project adopted many of the same political communication arguments as Reddit but faces an additional hurdle, with the government challenging its standing to bring the case. The group initially had two teens, Noah Jones and Macey Nyland, as lead plaintiffs, but both were withdrawn in July, leaving the advocacy group to bring the case; it is understood there were concerns the teens would face potential legal costs if the case were lost.
The Digital Freedom Project argued in its submission that some members are between 13 and 15 years old, and the teens are likely to be presented as examples in the case, but the federal government argued the group has not identified any activity of the group impeded by the ban. Legal experts have been divided on the prospect of success. Constitutional law expert Prof Anne Twomey wrote last year that Reddit could succeed in highlighting a mismatch between the law's intended purpose and its practical effect, while Luke Beck, professor of constitutional law at Monash University, wrote that the cases were likely to fail because the ban only slightly reduces the overall volume of political communication and 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds were not engaging in much political communication before the ban. Beck said the extra hurdle for the Digital Freedom Project to prove standing would also be difficult.