It's been very good for encouraging teens to learn more about networking and using AI tools to fake IDs etc.
It's not yet reached threshold levels that would actually likely see teen usage drop dramatically:
A separate piece of research found that teens thought at least two-thirds of other teens would need to be off social media for them to give it up, too. [2]
I feel like this was all part of the plan, put the laws in knowing the weak tech will be bypassed, and then slowly improve the tech to the point it's too much of a pain to bypass and most teens just don't bother and instead use platforms they can still access like IMs/group chats rather than instagram.
My 15 year old daughter and her friends, ranging in age from 14 to 16 have more or less been unaffected.
One of her 14 year old friends was locked out of Snapchat for about 10 minutes, until she had another 15 year old friend pass the age verification on her behalf.
It's not yet reached threshold levels that would actually likely see teen usage drop dramatically:
[1] March 2026: It’s official: Australia’s teen social media ban isn’t working, yet. https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/03/31/australias-teen-social-...[2] May 2026: Australia is fixing its teen social media ban on the fly. Do the changes go far enough? https://www.crikey.com.au/2026/05/01/teen-social-media-ban-a...
All in all, still in flux, things are being tweaked, too early to tell.
I am in favour of throwing challenges in front of teenagers though .. but I'm a grandparent - it's what I do.