Reddit and libertarian group challenge Australia’s under-16s social media ban in high court
What happened
Reddit and the Digital Freedom Project, an advocacy group led by libertarian state MP John Ruddick, asked Australia's High Court on Tuesday to strike down the country's under-16s social media ban as unconstitutional.
Both argue that barring under-16s from holding accounts unfairly burdens the freedom of political communication implied in Australia's constitution, according to the Guardian.
The government says the law protects children from harms such as algorithms, infinite scroll, persistent notifications and likes, and that its burden on political communication is modest, according to the Guardian and ABC.
Reddit's lawyer Perry Herzfeld told the court the law was rushed through, giving the company only 24 hours to make submissions, according to the BBC.
The ban took effect on 10 December last year and covers 10 platforms, with nearly 5 million accounts blocked, according to ABC.
The government is also disputing whether the Digital Freedom Project can bring the case, after the two teenage lead plaintiffs withdrew, according to the Guardian.
Summary written by AI from 3 independent sources (Guardian, BBC, ABC) and checked automatically against them for copied text and numbers that are not in the sources. How we work
Open on the live globe →Who reported it
- 2026-11-02 14:00 UTCGuardian · theguardian.com ↗
- 2026-11-02 19:12 UTCBBC · bbc.co.uk ↗
- 2026-11-02 19:43 UTCABC · abc.net.au ↗
- 2026-11-03 04:27 UTCStraits Times · straitstimes.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 06:23 UTCCNA same text as Straits Times · channelnewsasia.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 06:59 UTCAl Jazeera · aljazeera.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 09:24 UTCNYT · nytimes.com ↗
- 2026-11-03 13:40 UTCSky News · news.sky.com ↗
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