Australia’s social media ban leads to drop in followers, sparks mixed public response

Australian content creators are reporting declines in followers and views just a day after the country imposed a sweeping ban on teenagers using social media, posing risks to their income and forcing them to rethink their content strategies.

Australian teenagers also took to social media for the last time to bid farewell to the platforms that had shaped much of their lives, ahead of the world-first ban that took effect on Wednesday (December 10).

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Australia has ordered 10 of the largest platforms, including TikTok, Meta’s Instagram and Alphabet’s YouTube, to block under-16 users or face fines of up to USD 33 million (Rs 298 crore). The government has said it will take some time for platforms to establish mechanisms to comply.

Creators lose teen audience

As many teenagers adjust to a new reality without social media, content creators who spent years cultivating their followings are already feeling the impact of losing their most active audience segment.

Josh Partington, who typically attracts 100,000 views on his TikTok videos featuring comedy sketches about Australian life, said his first post since the ban began on Wednesday had reached barely one-tenth of that number, Reuters reported.

“Both my TikTok and Instagram videos from yesterday underperformed pretty noticeably,” he said. “They both landed under 10,000 views, which is very unusual for me.”

Users migrate to unregulated apps

Creators told Reuters that follower counts, particularly on Instagram, had fallen, while engagement patterns such as likes, comments and views had also shifted.

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If the trend continues, it could threaten earnings in an industry where metrics heavily influence revenue from brand partnerships and advertising.

Some creators have started opening accounts on platforms not yet covered by the ban, or building mailing lists to stay connected with younger followers.

Edits of users' favourite memes circulated widely, while many urged followers to move to alternative platforms such as Yope, Lemon8 and Coverstar, which currently fall outside the law.

Follower count declines

Partington, who has 100,000 followers across TikTok and Instagram, said the ban had cost him around 1,500 Instagram followers. If TikTok shows similar drops, “it is definitely a bit scary,” he said.

He acknowledged that losing followers could affect his brand work and income, but said he was not panicking. “While it’s not ideal, I’m confident I can adjust and still keep building my platforms. A lot of my audience under 16 is incredibly engaged and they’re a big part of why my videos land the way they do.”

Comedian Mitch Dale, 30, told Reuters that although most of his 200,000 followers were adults, losing younger fans would reduce early engagement and might force him to reconsider his posting schedule.

“I’ve always aimed to post outside of school hours on TikTok, 3.30 pm in the afternoon when kids have been getting home and getting on their phones. So that might be something I’ll reconsider,” he said.

Teens post farewell messages

In the hours before the ban’s midnight start, a flurry of farewell messages appeared from teenagers, and adults, on TikTok, Instagram and Reddit.

Young Australians, who have grown up with social media, reacted with sadness, humour and disbelief as they faced losing access to their favourite apps.

The government has said that some 200,000 accounts on TikTok alone have been deactivated since the ban came into force.

The Australian internet regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, will ask all affected platforms to report the number of under-16 accounts on the days immediately before and after the ban took effect, Communications Minister Anika Wells said on Thursday (December 11).

Surge in VPN searches

Searches for virtual private networks (VPNs), which can disguise a user’s location, surged to their highest level in about a decade in the week before the legislation took effect, according to publicly available Google data.

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Free VPN provider hide.me told Reuters that visits from Australia rose by 65 per cent in the days before the ban, although this had not yet translated into increased downloads.

As the ban took effect, some platforms not covered by the legislation shot to the top of app download charts, prompting the government to say the list of regulated platforms would remain “dynamic”.

PM admits rollout will be bumpy

Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese acknowledged that some young people were still using social media a day after the new restrictions began, saying the rollout was always expected to be “bumpy” but would ultimately save lives.

“Of course it isn’t smooth,” Albanese told Melbourne radio station FOX. “You can’t in one day switch off over a million accounts across the board. But it is happening.”

On Nova Radio in Sydney, he added, “If it was easy, someone else would have done it.”

Australian social media feeds were flooded with comments from users claiming to be under 16, including one on the prime minister’s TikTok account saying, “I’m still here, wait until I can vote.”

Mixed public response

The ban has drawn mixed reactions. Supporters argue that it protects children from excessive screen time, online pressures, bullying and predators.

Critics say restricting access risks pushing children to less regulated corners of the internet and question the reliability of the age-verification technology underpinning the law.

The debate is far from resolved, but Australia’s experiment has begun, and, in the middle of it, are children who are seen by some as safer without social media, and by others as losing access to communities and connections that can be difficult to replicate offline.