Despite Australia promising tougher penalties for a world-first social media ban for children, a new study indicates that six months in, the policy has barely affected youth access.

Australia is promising harsher penalties for tech companies that breach its social media ban for children. The tweaks to the policy come now that it's several months old. The first version of the policy seems not to have stopped kids from getting on Facebook or TikTok or other restricted platforms. Kristina Kukolja reports.

KRISTINA KUKOLJA, BYLINE: Six months into the ban, Australia's prime minister says too many children are still on social media. Anthony Albanese told Parliament companies that aren't complying with age restrictions must be held accountable.

PRIME MINISTER ANTHONY ALBANESE: We're working on that as a priority because this is something that other generations didn't have to deal with.

KUKOLJA: He's announced new legislation to double penalties for breaches to the equivalent of nearly $70 million and give stronger information-gathering powers to the online safety regulator. It comes as research by the University of Newcastle found most underage children were still online three months after restrictions were introduced.

COURTNEY BARNES: Over 85% of adolescents under 16 years, so those directly impacted by the age restrictions, were actually still accessing at least one of those restricted platforms each week.

KUKOLJA: That's public health researcher Courtney Barnes, who led the study published in the British Medical Journal. It found, quote, "limited implementation, incomplete compliance and substantial circumvention" of restrictions by children.

BARNES: They were really just using fake accounts predominantly, or private browsers like incognito mode. So definitely those early findings suggest that the age restrictions aren't working as they were intended.

KUKOLJA: The data supports the Australian eSafety Commissioner's findings that 70% of parents surveyed in March had underage children with some access to banned sites. The regulator put several companies on notice over compliance, even as it said millions of accounts had been removed, deactivated or restricted. John Pane is from the digital rights group Electronic Frontiers Australia.

JOHN PANE: It is a significant failure. The Australian government went at this by using the bluntest tool in the toolbox to smash the lowest of hanging fruit.

KUKOLJA: He says the government should take stronger action against social media companies.

PANE: It needs to prevent that behavioral modification that's driven by algorithms for engagement. Until we address that, things aren't going to change.

KUKOLJA: Courtney Barnes agrees it's an area that needs to be tackled but says it's too early to say the ban has failed.

BARNES: It's potentially not for the adolescents now that have been removed from social media where the real effects will occur. It might be for those younger age groups. Then we've probably got to wait 10 years to really know the true impact of the policy like this.

KUKOLJA: The Australian government says it's also considering imposing a digital duty of care to force social media companies to prevent online harm.

For NPR News, I'm Kristina Kukolja in Melbourne.

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