Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban Stumbles with ID Breaches and Widespread Evasion
Australia's attempt to enforce a social media ban for users under 16 has encountered significant challenges. A major data breach involving the theft of 70,000 ID images has raised concerns about privacy and security. Additionally, many under-16s continue to access social media platforms despite the ban, highlighting issues with age verification methods.
- ▪The eSafety Commissioner reported major gaps in the implementation of the under-16 social media ban.
- ▪A data breach in October 2025 resulted in the theft of 70,000 ID images, primarily affecting Australian users.
- ▪VPN usage surged prior to the ban, indicating that many under-16s are finding ways to bypass restrictions.
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Since Labour is laying the groundwork for an Australia-style social media ban for u16s, it is worth checking how the prototype is going. Less than a year in, Australia’s eSafety Commissioner is reporting “major gaps” and a significant data breach has already made the news. Imagine the kind of mess Whitehall could make of this… How Australia’s u16 ban is going: 70,000 ID images stolen in the Discord breach. A hack on third-party support firm 5CA in October 2025 swept up government IDs (passports, driving licences) handed over for age checks. Almost the entire global haul, 68,000 victims, was Australian. Hackers published selfies of users holding their IDs as proof of the leak, and claimed 2 million similar images, though Discord disputed the figure.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at Guido Fawkes.
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