If under-16-year-olds can bypass the online safety act, what’s the point in banning them from social media?

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According to the Molly Rose Foundation, 61 per cent of Australian teens are still using social media. You’d be surprised how easy it is.

As a teenager myself, I found it surprisingly easy to bypass the restrictions put in place after the original Online Safety Act took effect in 2025. Even people younger than I knew that a simple VPN, downloaded for free from the App Store, could be used to avoid age checks on ‘blocked’ websites.

It wasn't just VPNs. On social media, people posted videos of themselves using a picture of SpongeBob, Sir Keir Starmer, or even using a video game character from “Death Stranding 2” to fool the age checkers.

If teenagers can bypass verification tools freely, what exactly is the point of making people verify their age? It allows data companies to collect even more data when some people just want to use social media freely.

The Online Safety Act was meant to protect me, but as a teenager, I have not been taught what I am being “protected” from. I vaguely understand why this ban is being put into place, but most people my age don’t. They see the restriction as useless because they can simply bypass it using various methods.

If the parties genuinely care about the safety of children, there would be more of an effort put into teaching online safety. Instead of politicians saying that they are protecting us, they should explain what they’re protecting us from.

Teaching more about online safety in schools is key, as otherwise, teenagers will rebel. Teenagers will ignore the restrictions and, most likely, want to go against them because a “forbidden apple” effect is created by being told they aren't allowed to do something they want.

They need to understand why social media can be dangerous – especially when the benefits seem obvious. I believe a blanket ban won't work, and prefer the Liberal Democrats’ film-style age rating system, where sites that host graphic content would be rated 18+, and sites that host addictive feeds would be limited to users over 16.

Maybe that system, combined with more education for children, will make the internet a safer place.

Toby Kowal is a 15-year-old from Bromley.

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