Eight months after Australia’s ban, teen TikTok use is down one percentage point

https://media.thenextweb.com/2026/06/tiktok-super-app-shop-travel-fintech-world-cup.jpg

Eight months into the world’s first under-16 social media ban, 26% of Australian children aged 13 to 15 are still using TikTok, one percentage point below where the figure sat before the law took effect.

The data comes from the parental control software maker Qustodio, and it puts numbers to something already visible in the enforcement record, which is that the ban has not been complied with in the way the legislation assumed.

The shape of the recovery is what makes the data interesting. Usage fell sharply when the law came into force and then climbed steadily back, which is the pattern of a barrier being worked around rather than a behaviour being changed.

“What we’ve seen is an immediate drop to a degree, but slowly but surely the numbers have started to increase again,”said Yasmin London, Qustodio’s global online safety expert. Instagram and Snapchat sit below TikTok...

Copyright of this story solely belongs to thenextweb.com. To see the full text click HERE

Read more