Tech companies have been dragging their feet on enforcing Australia's child social media ban because they want the age limit to fail, federal leaders say.
Existing provisions barring children under 16 from platforms like Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit will be strengthened through planned changes to legislation.
The online watchdog will be granted greater powers and the maximum fine for breaches doubled to $99 million under the proposals, which are due to be introduced to parliament within days.
Digital giants would need to provide the eSafety Commissioner with more information about how they were enforcing the world-first ban, Communications Minister Anika Wells told reporters on Sunday.
"We know big tech wants this to fail and they would want reporting of anything that shows that these laws aren't working to 100 per cent efficacy," she said.
Pressed on why the provisions weren't included in the original laws, Ms Wells said any significant cultural change was bound to be challenging.
"My expectations are that the first three years of this will look untidy, because it is always going to be more difficult when you are taking something away," she said.
No penalties have been issued to tech companies for non-compliance under the existing enforcement regime.
University of Sydney senior lecturer Catherine Page Jeffery said increased fines were less important than existing powers being used.
"The eSafety Commissioner does need to move into enforcement mode and crack down," she told AAP.
"Almost seven months in, 80 per cent of people under 16 remain on social media. I'm not sure that the platforms are actually taking those reasonable steps to comply."
Dr Page Jeffery agreed tech companies wanted the measures to fail.
"Are the social media platforms willingly not complying or deliberately not complying, because they know the world is watching?" she said.
Several countries, including the UK, have announced plans to introduce similar measures.
But opposition communications spokeswoman Sarah Henderson said the age restrictions were "half-baked" and failed to protect children from online harms.
The coalition supported the ban but said Labor's implementation of it was flawed and chaotic.
"There is little evidence to suggest teenagers have turned away from social media as a consequence of the social media minimum age law," Senator Henderson said.
"Much more needs to be done to keep children safe online including giving parents access to mobile device safety tools, combating algorithms which fuel addictive 'doom scrolling' on social media feeds and blocking live-streaming to prevent the horrors of child sexual abuse."
The ban on children younger than 16 holding accounts on platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook and YouTube was introduced in late 2025.
While the government says more than five million social media accounts have been deleted, research suggests children are easily skirting age verification and other restrictions.
As many as 85 per cent of children younger than 16 reported using social media after the ban came into force, according to recent University of Newcastle-led research.
The rules require social media companies to take reasonable steps to stop underage users from holding accounts.
Under changes proposed by the federal government, the eSafety Commissioner could also request information from third parties, such as age-assurance and app-store providers.
Even tougher rules were needed to "hit big tech where it hurts", Greens senator Sarah Hanson Young said.
"We need to put the control back in the hands of users," she said.
"You should be able to decide what's in your social media feed."
The age ban has been contested by tech companies, with separate court challenges lodged by Reddit and a pair of teenagers backed by the Digital Freedom Project.
