X complies with social media ban
Josh Taylor
The last hold-out, Elon Musk’s X platform, has said it is complying with Australia’s under-16s social media ban.
The company’s Australian regulations page updated overnight says users in Australia must be at least 16 years old to hold an account.
It’s not our choice – it’s what the Australian law requires.
X is taking a “multi-faceted approach” to age assurance, using signals to determine account age, such as self-attested age, ID verification, legacy verified users, if the account was created in 2014 or earlier, or those with grey or gold badged accounts.
Without those signals, X said it would use email addresses to estimate age or otherwise check government ID. The platform says after the ID checks, the data is destroyed within 31 days.
X’s compliance means all 10 platforms initially named in the ban – Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, X, Reddit, Twitch and Kick – are complying with the ban.
Key events
Leave immediately warning for part of north east Tasmania
Tasmania Fire Service just issued a warning for residents of Stieglitz, near the town of St Helens, to leave immediately amid an encroaching bushfire.
An uncontrolled fire at the nearby Diana’s Basin is traveling towards the area, which is expected to put lives in danger and may destroy homes.
There is expected to be thick smoke, and showers of embers which may cause fires all around you. Spot fires may threaten your home before the main fire arrives.
Smoke and ash may make it difficult to see and breathe.
Tasmania Fire Service also said the area around Diana’s Basin and Flagstaff Hill is expected to be impacted by a bushfire, urging residents to monitor conditions and be prepared to leave if necessary under a watch and act alert. The fire is expected to be difficult to control today, and smoke and ash may make it difficult to see.
Pulse Tasmania reports two structures have been destroyed by flames in the area and about 50 people spent the night in evacuation centres.
You can stay up-to-date on alerts at TasAlert.
GPs back social media ban for kids
Melissa Davey
The Royal Australian College of GPs (RACGP) says it supports requiring social media platforms to prevent children under 16 from creating accounts from today.
While social media use in adolescence has been associated with positive engagement and peer support, the RACGP said in a statement that research has also linked social media use to negative mental health outcomes, sleep disruption, bullying and exposure to harmful content.
The 2021 HILDA survey estimated about 7% of adolescents aged 15-17 had a long-term mental health condition requiring treatment or a mental illness which requires help or supervision, while 19% of patients in this age group were diagnosed with depression, anxiety or another mental illness, three times the rate in 2009 (6%).
Meanwhile, recent University of Adelaide research of 14,000 South Australian children aged 11–14 found the share of daily social media users had tripled in the four years from 2019 to 2022, from 26% to 85%. The share of non-users in this age group fell from 31% to just 3% over the pandemic period.
“Adolescents are experiencing significantly higher rates of anxiety, alongside increased incidents of bullying,” Dr Michael Wright, president of the RACGP, said in a statement.
He went on:
Much of that happens on social media. We know that children and young people are spending extensive time on social media, and this is restricting their sleep and impacting their overall wellbeing.
While many parents are deeply concerned about the effects of social media, there is often reluctance among children themselves to reduce their usage. This highlights the challenge families face in managing online engagement.
We have spoken to the eSafety Commissioner to better understand these changes. There is growing recognition of the need to place controls on the type of information children are exposed to online.
The RACGP said the ban alone won’t be enough, and that parents, teachers, carers and peers should stay vigilant against risks of online harm.
Adam Morton
Australia’s energy grid must triple capacity by 2050 with major increase to wind and solar, Aemo says
The capacity of Australia’s main electricity grid will need to triple by 2050 – including a fivefold expansion of large-scale wind, solar and storage – under the most likely development path, the national energy market operator says.
The estimate is included in the Australian Energy Market Operator (Aemo) draft “integrated system plan” for the national electricity market, the power grid that connects the five eastern states and the ACT.
Aemo found renewables would continue to replace coal as the grid’s “bulk generation”, and total electricity consumption would nearly double over the next 25 years as industry, homes and cars increasingly ran on electricity and the number of datacentres expanded.
It suggested the capital cost of the energy grid infrastructure under the optimal path would be $128bn in today’s dollars. It said the transition would be more expensive if it was delayed and the Albanese government’s 2030 renewable energy target – 82% of generation – was not met.
Read more here:
Financial markets predict RBA rate hike by June
Patrick Commins
Financial markets are now betting the Reserve Bank will hike rates by the middle of next year, after the central bank board yesterday flagged it may have to act to subdue a rebound in inflation.
Traders are pricing in a nearly 30% chance a hike could come as early as the next RBA board meeting in February, and have almost completely factored in two hikes by the end of 2026.
Michele Bullock, the RBA governor, effectively ruled out further rate relief, saying “the question is, is it just an extended hold from here or is it possibility of a rate rise?”.
Not all economists are convinced the next move is up, however.
Westpac’s chief economist, Luci Ellis, is still predicting two rate cuts in the second half of next year.
Albanese is stumping the social media ban, on social media
The prime minister posted a brief video announcing the ban to his social media accounts this morning, a slightly ironic moment as, from today, kids themselves won’t be able to see it.
He said:
Social media can be a bit overwhelming for all of us, but for our kids it can cause real harm.
It will mean more time for children to learn, grow and just be kids, without algorithms getting in the way.
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Josh Butler
Albanese says his use of family travel allowance ‘in accordance with the rules’
Federal politicians are calling for public spending rules to be tightened as it is revealed Anthony Albanese also used the family reunion travel allowance after being invited to major sporting events around Australia.
The prime minister charged taxpayers about $2,800 for three instances of family travel costs on weekends when he also declared being given tickets to the AFL grand final, the rugby league State of Origin and the Australian Open tennis, Guardian Australia can reveal.
A government spokesperson said all of Albanese’s disclosures were “made appropriately and in accordance with the rules”.
Read more about his expenses here:
X complies with social media ban
Josh Taylor
The last hold-out, Elon Musk’s X platform, has said it is complying with Australia’s under-16s social media ban.
The company’s Australian regulations page updated overnight says users in Australia must be at least 16 years old to hold an account.
It’s not our choice – it’s what the Australian law requires.
X is taking a “multi-faceted approach” to age assurance, using signals to determine account age, such as self-attested age, ID verification, legacy verified users, if the account was created in 2014 or earlier, or those with grey or gold badged accounts.
Without those signals, X said it would use email addresses to estimate age or otherwise check government ID. The platform says after the ID checks, the data is destroyed within 31 days.
X’s compliance means all 10 platforms initially named in the ban – Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, X, Reddit, Twitch and Kick – are complying with the ban.
Albanese brushes off criticism of Anika Wells’ expenses
Albanese was just asked about the ongoing coverage of communication minister Anika Wells’ expenses. He said parliament is now more representative than it had been in the past, noting Wells had three young children, but would not say if the rules surrounding family travel expenses should be tightened.
He told ABC News:
It is a good thing that parliament is more representative than it used to be. People have a long time away from their families, from their children and from their partners.
The rules are in place, independently. I tell you what is not a good thing, is for politicians to rule and manage themselves. It’s important that there be arm’s length. That is what has been put in place.
The prime minister noted that all expenses are published publicly in “great detail”, which he described as “important for transparency”. He noted Wells had self-referred her expenses to an indepedent watchdog.
PM says social media ban is a ‘proud’ moment for Australia
Anthony Albanese said today will begin a difficult period of transition, but said it was a proud moment for the country.
The prime minister told ABC News:
This is the day when Australian families are taking back power from these big tech companies. They are asserting the right of kids to be kids and for parents to have greater peace of mind. This is a proud day.
We understand this is going to be difficult, but it is so important that young people are given the opportunity to actually grow as young humans and to differentiate as well between what is real in human interactions and what they can often be exposed to online.
Inman Grant says getting ‘the most powerful, rich companies’ to comply was always going to be messy
Inman Grant said she expects kids to experience massive changes as the social media ban sticks around. The eSafety commissioner added that some social media companies were more difficult to work with than others during the rollout of the ban, telling ABC News:
To the extent that there are seven stages of grief, we have seen some be very accepting, some in denial, some are quite angry.
I guess that shows the character of the company and how they’re taking this. …
People will say the rollout was messy, well it was always going to be messy when you’re dragging the most powerful rich companies kicking and screaming into doing something they don’t want to do. But it’s the right thing for Australian children.
Apps not named in social media ban top downloads on Apple app store charts
Josh Taylor
As Australians are waking up this morning with the under-16s social media ban now in effect, apps that have not been named in the initial 10 platforms included in the ban have topped the Apple app store free apps charts.
Those are Lemon8, Yope, and Coverstar. As my colleague, Matilda Boseley reported last week, teens were going to these apps in preparation for their accounts on the other sites being shut down.
The eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, said on the Full Story podcast that she was mindful teens may migrate to other platforms, and more could be expected to comply in the future. Yope and Lemon8 were among those she had been in communications with.
The platforms themselves ultimately need to determine whether they will comply, which is why we saw Bluesky roll out age assurance in Australia yesterday despite not initially being one in the focus of eSafety.
There was a slight uptick in searches for “VPN” on Google trends in Australia as people may be trying to look for ways around age assurance on the platforms using virtual private networks. The government has said the platforms will be expected to try to prevent people circumventing the ban, but has acknowledged it won’t be perfect.
Inman Grant says ban will have ‘teething issues’ but ‘our kids will be all right’
Julie Inman Grant, the eSafety commissioner, said today is an “absolutely momentous day” as the social media ban for under-16s goes into effect.
She told ABC News while there were certainly be teething issues as tech companies rein in the ability for young people to access their services, over time, she expects platforms to continue to innovate to keep kids off their devices with the world-first ban.
Inman Grant said:
Of course there will be teething issues and kids are ingenuitous, they will be finding ways around it. But the way that we are looking at compliance and enforcement is around systemic failures and I 100% believe that these companies have the technical capability to achieve this and they may have come into this kicking and screaming but now it is time for them to show us their stuff.
I don’t think everything is going to magically disappear overnight but we have corrected for that in our regulatory guidance.
Inman Grant went on to say that “we as parents need to make sure that we’re preparing our kids for the summer holidays to fill their time, kind of like we used to play, riding the bike and reading the books and playing the board games and going to the beach”.
Our kids will be all right.
Toddler dies in NSW after being hit by ute near Port Stephens
A toddler has died in NSW after being hit by a car on Tuesday night.
NSW police said emergency services were called to a suburban home after reports of the accident. Officers arrived to find a very young girl had been hit by a ute on the property.
The toddler was treated by paramedics at the scene and taken to a local hospital in critical condition, where she later died.
The driver was uninjured and taken to the hospital for mandatory testing. No charges have been laid.
Police will continue to investigate the cause of the accident.
Good morning, Nick Visser here to take over the blog. Let’s get to it.
And Josh Taylor has interviewed Inman Grant for today’s episode of the Full Story podcast, which you can listen to here:
Daisy Dumas has written an excellent profile of the “tough” and “courageous” eSafety commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, who has made the ban happen.
Read it here:
Natasha May
NSW health minister says bed block has ‘serious consequences’
Ryan Park said the surge in bed block was “simply not sustainable”.
“Commonwealth bed block has serious consequences for our state hospitals – from wards, to surgeries that can’t be conducted, to people waiting for beds in the ED. Imagine if Westmead and Mount Druitt hospitals were ripped out from our health system, that’s what commonwealth bed block is doing to NSW right now.”
The release of the data comes at the same time as the latest NSW Bureau of Health Information (BHI) quarterly report for July to September 2025.
Park lauded healthcare workers for improvements in the number of patients being seen on time who are triaged as requiring care within ten minutes (like those suffering from chest pain, difficulty breathing and severe fractures) in emergency departments, particularly in Western Sydney where wait times have been particularly problematic.
He cited Bankstown hospital where on time performance for these patients has risen from 31.6% last year to 47.4% this year, Blacktown from 22.4% to 35.2%, Liverpool from 33.6% to 61.9%, and Campbelltown from 11.8% to 30.1%.
Bed block surges by more than 50% in NSW hospitals, minister says
Natasha May
Bed block in NSW hospitals has surged by more than 50% in the last year, according to data released by the state government.
It comes as states and territories across the country have raised the issue as a central part of their argument to get more funding for hospitals from the commonwealth, with bed block primarily caused by patients unable to get alternative accommodation in aged care and supported disability accommodation which are federal responsibilities.
They remain in a stalemate over the public hospital funding agreement, with health ministers at all levels to meet on Friday.
The number of patients exceeding their estimated date of discharge in NSW public hospitals because they are waiting to access a commonwealth aged care or National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) placement increased from 747 patients to 1,151 in the year to 30 September 2025.
This is according to data the NSW health minister, Ryan Park, has today released. Of those patients, the growth in patients needing the aged care beds was most significant rising from 443 to 829 in the year period, while demand for NDIS supported accommodation rose more modestly from 304 to 322.
Park also released a breakdown of the growth in bed block in the largest and busiest hospitals in the state (known as level five and six hospitals).
Westmead hospital had the highest number – 60 – of those patients exceeding their date of discharge as at September 2025, followed by Wyong in the central coast with 48.
The greatest percentage increase in these patients in a year’s period was seen at Calvary Mater Newcastle jumping 600% from six patients in September 2024 to 42 patients a year later, followed by a 500% increase at St George hospital in south-west Sydney rising from five to 30 patients.
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Nick Visser with the main action.
The eyes of the world are on Australia this morning after the long-awaited social media ban for under-16s came into force overnight. More details coming up.
Bed block in New South Wales hospitals has surged by more than 50% in the last year, according to data released by the state government. The federal government is deadlocked with states about extra health funding ahead of a meeting between the parties this Friday. More to come.
