Two months after the introduction of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age (SMMA) law, Snapchat says it remains committed to complying with the legislation and supporting its goal of improving online safety for young Australians. The company has shared updates on its compliance efforts and outlined concerns about potential gaps in the law.
Snapchat reports that as of the end of January 2026, it has locked or disabled more than 415,000 accounts in Australia belonging to users who declared an age under 16 or were identified as likely underage by Snapchat’s age detection technology. The company continues to lock additional accounts daily.
Despite these actions, Snapchat notes ongoing challenges with the current approach. The company points out technical limitations in accurate age verification. According to Snapchat, “The Australian government’s own trial, published in 2025, found that available age estimation technology was only accurate to within 2-3 years on average. In practice, this means some young people under 16 may be able to bypass protections, potentially leaving them with reduced safeguards, while others over 16 may incorrectly lose access.”
Snapchat also raises concerns about a lack of industry-wide protections. The company states that many other apps are either not covered by the law or their status is unclear. It highlights that over three-quarters of time spent on Snapchat in Australia involves messaging with close friends and family. The company warns that cutting off access could lead young people to use alternative messaging services that may offer fewer safety protections.
To address these issues, Snapchat advocates for app store-level age verification as an added safeguard. The company argues this would provide more consistent age signals across devices and strengthen safety throughout the digital ecosystem—not just for regulated apps but for all services.
“App store-level age verification would help address multiple risks and gaps,” Snapchat said. “First, it would give in-scope apps more consistent age signals for each device, helping ensure that users under 16 are kept off the app while reducing the risk that users over 16 are incorrectly locked out. Second, it would strengthen safety across the entire digital ecosystem — not just for select regulated apps, but for all services.”
Snapchat maintains its position against an outright ban for those under 16: “We want to be clear: we still don’t believe an outright ban for those under 16 is the right approach. We understand the Australian government’s objectives and share the goal of protecting young people online. But in the case of Snapchat — which is primarily a messaging app used by young people to stay connected with close friends and family — we do not believe that cutting teens off from these relationships makes them safer, happier, or otherwise better off. We fundamentally disagree that Snapchat is an in-scope age-restricted social media platform.”
The company says it will continue working constructively with policymakers: “Despite our disagreement with the policy itself, we believe it’s important to engage constructively and suggest ways to improve its implementation and reduce negative unintended effects. If Australia is going to pursue this approach, it should be done in a way that offers greater protection to young people with fewer downsides. Creating a centralized verification system at the app-store level would allow for more consistent protection and higher barriers to circumventing the law.”
In addition to compliance efforts, Snapchat says it continues building safety features such as requiring bi-directional friend connections for direct communication and maintaining around-the-clock Trust & Safety teams—including a full-time team based in Sydney.
The platform also provides parental tools through Family Center—recently expanded so parents can see how much time their teen spends on different features within Snapchat and gain insights into new friend connections—to help families have informed conversations about online activity.
