Australia Adds Twitch To Teen Ban, Exempts Pinterest

Australia widened its under-16 social media clampdown by specifically targeting Twitch, the live-streaming service, while giving Pinterest a clear pass. The eSafety Commissioner said Twitch satisfies the criteria to qualify as an age-restricted social media platform because of its real-time chat functions, community offerings and creator-follower engagements. Pinterest, positioned as an app for visual discovery and idea cataloguing, is not covered by the regulations.

The decision comes as platforms gear up for enforcement of the Social Media Minimum Age regime, which requires covered services to deny under-16s access. It is an example of how regulators are starting to draw sharper distinctions between public “social” atmospheres and discovery tools that feel more like search or bookmarking.

What Changed and Why Twitch Is Included in the Ban

The classification defined by eSafety revolves around whether a service facilitates social interaction, user-to-user engagement and content sharing that can afford minors exposure to real-time contact. On Twitch, it’s the 2.5 million viewers with emoji hovercrafts and lightning polls decaying in real time on-screen alongside your stream. In contrast, Pinterest is more widely used to curate and manage images, recipes and plans than for open and real-time conversation.

Live-streaming creates specific moderation challenges. Late moderation in real-time chat leaves little buffer, so behaviours such as bullying, grooming, or the provision of access to inappropriate content can be more easily achieved than on platforms where posts can be pre- (or post-) moderated en masse. Regulators in Australia and overseas have sent strong signals that they believe live-streams should be subject to greater restrictions.

Who the Australian Under-16 Social Media Ban Covers

Outside Twitch, the under-16 restrictions also apply to major platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat, TikTok, X (a mystery video marketplace), YouTube.com*, Reddit** and Aussie-grown streaming service Kick. YouTube Kids and Google Classroom are excluded as educational and child-specific services subject to dedicated protections.

Platforms must also stop those under 16 from signing up and impose limitations on the use of existing accounts in Australia. eSafety has developed a self-assessment tool to help companies decide whether their features and user interactions will meet the age-restricted criterion.

Age Checks and Enforcement Hurdles Facing Platforms

The policy push is plain; the implementation, convoluted. Age verification at internet scale is an evolving problem: providers are trying out tests on documents, cross-checks with mobile numbers, and estimates of age from AI for images, each with its trade-offs of accuracy (or lack thereof), privacy and accessibility. Children’s rights campaigners also warn that heavy-handed identity checks could drive young users off to more unsupervised areas of the web, while privacy groups have cautioned against creating new data honeypots.

The industry previously called for a period of enforcement sabbatical while the government trialled age-verification approaches. Australian industry body DIGI, which counts Google, Meta (formerly Facebook) and TikTok among its members, has said that uniform, privacy-preserving age-verification standards are needed to prevent a fractured patchwork of services.

What Twitch’s Addition Means for Young Users

The decision on Twitch is likely to be particularly significant for those ages 16 or younger who stream or take part in creator communities. It has an impact on viewers and would-be creators who are watching or using streaming to join esports teams, display art or develop an early audience. While many streamers bring in money through subscriptions and tips, both of those will be shut off for under-16s under the new rules.

The contrast with Pinterest underscores how regulators are parsing “socialness.” Services focused on idea discovery and personal curation may have less strict gating than platforms that support more public broadcasting, live audience interaction, and direct messaging at scale.

Australia In A Global Shift On Youth Online Safety

Australia’s approach reflects a broader international drive to limit children’s access to high-risk online environments. More than two dozen states in the United States have enacted laws that either mandate age verification or require parental consent when minors are using platforms or accessing certain kinds of content. Britain’s Online Safety Act requires strong age checks on pornographic services and gives the regulator powers to impose hefty fines for non-compliance.

Yet despite the congruence in policy goals, modalities of implementation differ. The U.K. pivots on risk-based duties of care, the U.S. patchwork is state-by-state and Australia is setting a very bright line at the minimum age for defined social platforms — with its latest intervention now being explicit about live-streaming too.

What Platforms Should Do Next to Comply With the Rules

Subscribers will have to implement age verification when users sign up, but crucially should audit existing accounts, including by setting escalation paths when users are flagged as under 16. Expect updates to terms of service, more restrictive default privacy controls, and customer-support playbooks for dealing with lockouts and appeals. To remain in compliance, regional gating or modifications to payout eligibility may be added for platforms by creators.

Regulators will be looking for measurable outcomes: a lift in under-16 usage on services that are restricted, fewer reports of contact-based harms, responsible use of age-assurance processes that result in the minimum amount of data collection.

With Twitch on the list now and Pinterest off of it, Australia has made clear where it believes the line should be drawn between social interaction and content discovery for young users.