Six months into Australia’s groundbreaking social media ban for children under 16, most teenagers report little change in their online habits. The ban, championed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to protect youth mental health, was meant to block platforms like TikTok and Instagram. However, federal government data from March found about 70% of children kept their accounts, largely because platforms never asked them to verify their age. A Western Sydney University study and a paper in The BMJ confirmed similar findings, with over 86% of respondents having used a banned platform in the previous week. Many children simply continued using their own accounts without needing VPNs or other sophisticated workarounds.