The digital landscape for Australian families changed significantly in late 2025 and early 2026. With the introduction of the social media minimum age and the new Children’s Online Privacy Code, the legal framework governing what children do online—and how their data is handled—is more robust than ever.
Parental Controls and Children’s Digital Privacy: What the Law Says in Australia
Australia has moved from a “buyer beware” approach to a system where the onus is on digital platforms to protect younger users. For parents, understanding these laws is the first step in ensuring their children remain safe and their data remains private.
The New Social Media Minimum Age Law
As of December 2025, Australia enforced a landmark change to the Online Safety Act 2021. This law mandates that social media platforms must take reasonable steps to prevent children under the age of 16 from holding accounts.
The eSafety Commissioner now has the power to fine companies up to $49.5 million if they fail to implement effective age-assurance technologies. Importantly, there are no penalties for parents or children who bypass these rules; the legal responsibility sits entirely with the service providers like TikTok, Instagram, and X.
The Children’s Online Privacy Code (COPC)
While the age limit keeps younger children off social media, the Children’s Online Privacy Code, released as an exposure draft in March 2026, protects all Australians under 18 across the broader internet.
Registered under the Privacy Act 1988, this code forces apps, games, and websites to act in the “best interests of the child.” This means they cannot use manipulative “dark patterns” to encourage data sharing and must set privacy to the highest level by default.
Key Legal Protections for Australian Minors
The current legal framework focuses on three pillars: consent, data minimisation, and transparency.
- Privacy by Default: Services must automatically apply the most restrictive privacy settings to any account identified as belonging to a child.
- The Right to Deletion: Children and their parents now have a strengthened legal right to request the “destruction” of personal information held by online services.
- Ban on Targeted Advertising: Under the 2026 Code, companies are prohibited from using a child’s personal information for profiling or targeted advertising without explicit, high-standard consent.
- Age-Appropriate Language: Privacy policies can no longer be buried in 50 pages of “legalese.” The law requires that these documents be written in language a child can actually understand.
Understanding Parental Consent Requirements
In Australia, the age of “digital consent” is generally 15. For children under this age, a platform must obtain consent from a parent or guardian before collecting personal data that is not strictly necessary for the service to function.
Recent amendments have introduced a “double-check” mechanism. This means that even if a child claims to have parental permission, the platform may be legally required to verify that the person providing the consent is actually the parent, often through ID tech or credit card verification.
How Parental Controls Intersect with Australian Law
Parental control software is often the bridge between a family’s household rules and the law of the land. While the law mandates what companies must do, parental controls allow families to enforce their own boundaries.
The Role of the eSafety Commissioner
The eSafety Commissioner provides the “Basic Online Safety Expectations” (BOSE). These guidelines encourage platforms to provide robust parental control tools that allow parents to:
- Monitor and limit screen time.
- Restrict access to “R18+” and “MA15+” content.
- View who their child is communicating with.
If a platform’s parental controls are found to be deceptive or ineffective, the Commissioner can issue a “removal notice” or a “service-provider notice” to force improvements.
Data Privacy of the Controls Themselves
A common irony is that parental control apps often collect massive amounts of data on children to function. Under the Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024, these apps are also bound by strict rules. They must ensure that the “digital trail” they create for the purpose of safety does not become a target for hackers or be sold to third-party data brokers.
Future Outlook: December 2026 and Beyond
The full implementation of the Children’s Online Privacy Code is expected by 10 December 2026. By this date, any online service “likely to be accessed by children”—even if not specifically designed for them—must comply with the new standards.
This transition marks a shift toward “Safety by Design.” Instead of parents having to hunt through menus to turn on protections, the law now demands that the software be safe from the moment it is downloaded.
Summary of Major Penalties
| Legislation | Maximum Penalty (Corporate) | Primary Focus |
| Online Safety Act | $49.5 Million | Age limits & Harmful content |
| Privacy Act (COPC) | $50 Million or 30% of turnover | Data collection & Privacy |
| Restricted Access System | Civil Penalties | R18+ Content filtering |
Australia’s approach is now among the strictest in the world. By combining age-gating for social media with high-level privacy protections for all other digital services, the government aims to create a “walled garden” for Australian minors. For parents, this means a future where the cyber security law supports their efforts to keep their children’s digital footprints small and their online experiences safe.
