Australia Online Safety Act 2021
What it does
The Online Safety Act armed a single regulator, the eSafety Commissioner, with removal powers over cyber-abuse and violent content, backed by fines and link-deletion orders that reached into global disputes with X. Codes registered in 2025 took effect in two waves: from December 27, 2025 the search-engine code requires age checks for logged-in users, with six months to implement and A$9.9 million per breach, alongside new hosting and carriage codes; codes for app stores, equipment makers, messaging, and other services followed on March 9, 2026. Age gates are arriving across the Australian internet as regulatory codes, without a new act.
Why it matters
The codes route means the age-check regime expands by registration rather than by vote, and the March 2026 wave reaches the device and app store level the American state laws fight over. Together with the under-16 ban, Australia is assembling checks at the platform, the search bar, the app store, and the handset.
Our take
A regulator that can register a code and change what the internet requires of every Australian is legislating without a legislature. Search engines began carding users in December; devices followed in March. The act that built this passed in 2021 with barely a fight about any of it.
Timeline
- July 23, 2021Royal assent
- January 23, 2022Came into force
- December 27, 2025First code tranche in force: age checks at search, hosting, and carriage services
- March 9, 2026Second tranche in force: app stores, device makers, messaging, and other services
Related bills
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