Kick and Reddit are being restricted for minors in Australia as part of the country’s new online safety initiative. The legislation, which significantly limits access to platforms like TikTok, Snapchat, and Threads, is expected to go into effect this December.
Australia’s eSafety Commission has been cracking down on platforms deemed harmful for minors, based upon a set of legislative rules introduced by the Minister for Communications in July 2025. In essence, this legislature marks any social media platform (as in, any website or app specifically designed around online socialization) as being potentially harmful to minors, and such platforms will be subject to more rigorous age verification methods once the law takes effect. Platforms impacted by the legislation will have to take “reasonable steps” to verify a user’s age, and anyone identified as being under 16 will have their use of a given platform significantly restricted. In most cases, this will simply mean that underage users will be unable to make new accounts, barring them from engaging with key features like posting, commenting, and adding friends or following other users. Companies deemed to be in breach of these laws may be subject to fines of up to $49.5 million AUD.
The eSafety Commission is adamant that these laws constitute a “delay” for underage users, opting not to call it a “ban,” as underage users won’t face penalties should they circumvent any age-verification procedures.
Kick, Reddit, and More Are Being Significantly Restricted for Underage Users in Australia
These new laws will apply to Reddit and Kick as well, despite these platforms not often being considered traditional social media sites like Facebook and Instagram. Dexerto reports that Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells announced the inclusion of these platforms on November 4, 2025, placing them alongside six other restricted sites, including Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube.
The law is meant to apply to any service or platform whose “sole or significant purpose” is to “enable online social interaction.” The eSafety Commission deemed that platforms with social elements, but that are mainly designed around activities like gaming or messaging, are exempt from the law. This means that platforms like Roblox, Steam, and Twitch, despite being assessed by the eSafety Commission earlier this year, will not be impacted.
This would hardly be the first time that a major government attempted to ban or limit social media access. Video sharing goliath TikTok has technically been banned in the US since January 2025, for instance, though these restrictions haven’t been enforced by the Trump administration. Minister Wells acknowledged the complexity and difficulty of these laws in a recent statement, saying “we aren’t chasing perfection, we are chasing a meaningful difference.”