As of December 10th, 2025, Australians under the age of 16 are no longer able to access almost all major social media platforms. This includes sites such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, FaceBook, and many more, although it does not include YouTube Kids or most messaging apps. The enforcement of this ban is not universal, being left up to the discretion of each individual platform. Some have decided to require proof of your bank account or a picture of your legal government ID, and others have even resorted to AI face scanning to prove you are of age. These measures have brought into mind some serious concerns about privacy, with many Australians expressing worries about their documents being leaked, or their phone activity being directly linked to their full legal identification. 

This newfound push for limitations on children’s social media is not constrained to Australia. Many countries are worried about the negative effects that unfettered social media access can have on children, especially those with access from a very young age. Right now in the USA multiple bills are being discussed that would restrict the internet access of children across the United States, some of those statewide, some nationwide. 

One such bill is the Kids Online Safety and Privacy Act, more commonly known as the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA for short. This bill would prevent minors from accessing any site that the government deemed to be contributing to harmful behaviors or exposing them to harmful content, such as bullying, eating disorders, and any sexual content. The responsibility to enforce these guidelines would fall not to the people or the government, but to the social media sites themselves, which would then be prosecuted by the government if they were found to not be in line with these rules. This brings up the concern that, similar to in Australia, enforcement of this bill will be carried out by requiring proof of legal documents, or using AI tools, both of which create security risks if information were to be leaked from these platforms. 

Another concern that many people have with KOSA, is that platforms will over-censor their content in order to avoid the possibility of being sued by the government. KOSA is unclear in what exactly would be considered as ¨exposing¨ when it comes to harmful content, meaning that even offering education about banned content could potentially lead to a platform being sued. This would mean that sites that offer education on resources for dealing with issues such as eating disorders, self harm, and LGBTQ+ topics could be at risk under KOSA. The vague nature of these rules and the potentially harmful enforcement methods call into question how helpful this bill and others like it really are. Although the Kids Online Safety Act has passed in the Senate, it still has a long way to go before it becomes a law, which may never end up happening at all depending on how the rest of the process goes. However, even if it does not pass there are many more bills like KOSA, and there will almost certainly be more in the future. It is worth considering the good they do, and if it is worth the potential risks to security, education, and resources.