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Australia removes 4.7M kids from social media platforms in first month of historic ban
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Social media companies have removed access to millions of accounts belonging to children in Australia in the first month since the country’s historic ban took effect, requiring platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to identify and deactivate users under the age 16.
Access was revoked for roughly 4.7 million users, according to Australian officials, who on Friday touted the early success of the law, which was enacted in mid-December amid fears surrounding the impact of online environments on young people.
«Today, we can announce that this is working,» Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said during a news conference. «This is a source of Australian pride. This was world-leading legislation, but it is now being followed up around the world.»
Under the law, 10 social media giants — Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, Snapchat, Kick, Reddit, Threads, Twitch and YouTube — must locate and deactivate accounts of Australian users under the age of 16. The companies face fines of up to $33 million if they don’t take «reasonable steps» to remove underage users.
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Australia’s prime minister celebrated the success of a new law, which requires social media platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to identify and deactivate users under the age of 16. (Tracey Nearmy/Getty Images; Anna Barclay/Getty Images)
«We stared down everybody who said it couldn’t be done, some of the most powerful and rich companies in the world and their supporters,» said Australian communications minister Anika Wells. «Now Australian parents can be confident that their kids can have their childhoods back.»
According to Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, there are roughly 2.5 million Australians between the ages of 8 and 15, with about 84% of 8 to 12-year-olds having at least one social media account. While the total number of accounts across platforms is unknown, Inman Grant said the number of deactivated or restricted accounts was encouraging.
«We’re preventing predatory social media companies from accessing our children,» she said at a news conference.
NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF AMERICAN VOTERS BACK SOCIAL MEDIA BAN FOR KIDS UNDER 16, FOX NEWS POLL SHOWS
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese meets police officers during a visit to the NSW Police headquarters, following a deadly shooting incident during a Jewish holiday celebration at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. (Hollie Adams/Reuters)
Critics of the new ban have argued that it will be difficult to enforce, and Inman Grant acknowledged that there are still some active underage accounts.
«We don’t expect safety laws to eliminate every single breach. If we did, speed limits would have failed because people speed, drinking limits would have failed because, believe it or not, some kids do get access to alcohol,» she said.
She added that based on data reviewed by her office, there was an increase in downloads of alternative apps after the ban began, but not a spike in usage.
Social media platforms can verify age by either requesting copies of identification documents, using a third party to apply age estimation technology to an account holder’s face, or making inferences from data already available, such as how long an account has been active.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said earlier this week that it had removed nearly 550,000 accounts belonging to users it believed were under the age of 16 just one day after the ban began.
While the law was popular among parents and child safety campaigners, online privacy advocates and groups representing teenagers largely came out against it.
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A teenager in Sydney holds a phone displaying an Instagram age-verification message after the account was locked on Dec. 9, 2025. (AFP via Getty Images)
Other countries have weighed similar measures in step with Australia, and some American lawmakers have also signaled their interest in pursuing social media restrictions in the U.S.
«I think we ought to look at what Australia’s doing, for example, requiring access to these social media platforms to not be available to anybody under the age of 16,» Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said last month.
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., previously said that «protecting children is an avenue that should be pursued.»
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«I won’t rule out some sort of limitation in sales or distribution or use of those devices… Parents and grandparents need a helping hand; this is getting out of hand,» he said.
Fox News Digital’s Nora Moriarty, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
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INTERNACIONAL
Ukraine to meet Trump envoys ahead of high-stakes Geneva talks with Russia as war enters fifth year
Russia-Ukraine war enters fifth year
Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot joins ‘America Reports’ to discuss the start of the fifth year in the war between Russia and Ukraine, the impact it has had on both countries and the ongoing efforts to negotiate peace.
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Representatives from Ukraine and the U.S. are reportedly set to meet ahead of high-stakes trilateral talks in Geneva that will include Russian envoys. The report about the meeting comes just after the Russia-Ukraine war entered its fifth year.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters about the Thursday U.S.-Ukraine meeting, The Associated Press reported. The Ukrainian leader reportedly said that Thursday’s meeting would focus on the possibility of post-war recovery for Ukraine as well as preparations for an upcoming trilateral meeting with Russia, according to the AP.
The meeting is expected to involve Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council Secretary, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, according to the AP, which cited Zelenskyy. Additionally, Umerov’s press secretary Diana Davytian told the AP that the meeting would take place in Geneva. The outlet noted that the Swiss city is also expected to be the site of U.S.-Iran nuclear negotiations on the same day as the trilateral talks.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during their meeting at the sidelines of the 56th annual World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 22, 2026. (Ukrainian Presidential Press Service/Handout via Reuters)
Zelenskyy said that he had tasked Umerov with discussing a possible prisoner exchange, the AP reported. He added that Ukraine would like the talks with Russia to take place next week.
The Trump administration’s push to end the years-long war has brought Russian and Ukrainian envoys to the table in both Abu Dhabi and Geneva, though the meetings have yet to produce a breakthrough for peace.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have both met separately with President Donald Trump. Despite a peace deal agreement being close, territorial disputes remain, Zelenskyy said. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP; Christian Bruna/Getty)
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Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X that he had met with Zelenskyy and discussed «Ukraine’s security and deepening defense and economic partnerships.»
«President Trump wants a solution that ends the bloodshed once and for all,» Rubio wrote.
Additionally, last week, Zelenskyy said that he spoke with Witkoff and Kushner ahead of the trilateral meetings in Geneva, which he said the Ukrainian government expects to be «truly productive.»
«We also discussed some developments following the meetings in Abu Dhabi. Not everything can be shared over the phone, and our negotiating team will present Ukraine’s position next week. I also spoke about our meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. We greatly appreciate that America consistently maintains a constructive approach and is ready to assist in protecting lives,» Zelenskyy wrote on X. «I thank President Trump, his team, and the people of the United States for their support.»
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the U.S. gave Ukraine and Russia a June deadline to end the war. (Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images; Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images; Kristina Solovyova / POOL / AFP via Getty Images)
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On Tuesday, which was the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelenskyy stood firm, saying that Putin had not defeated Ukraine nor broken the country’s spirit. The statement came as Ukrainian forces made the biggest gains since 2024, according to the AP, which cited the Institute for the Study of War. The institute noted that Ukranian forces have pushed back on Russia’s army at points along the front line in eastern areas of the country.
The State Department did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Voters react as Trump calls Dems ‘crazy’ for not applauding ban on secret teen gender transitions
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President Donald Trump’s decision to rip Democrats as «crazy» during his State of the Union address on Tuesday — after they remained seated while he demanded a ban on socially transitioning minors without parental consent — drew sharply divided reactions from a live panel of voters.
The panel, assembled by polling group Maslansky & Partners, included 29 Democrats, 30 Independents and 40 Republicans. Their real-time reactions were displayed as colored lines on a graph, with higher values representing positive reactions and lower values indicating negative ones.
«But surely we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,» Trump said. «Who would believe that?… We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.»
As Trump delivered the remarks, the Republican line, shown in red, climbed sharply into positive territory. Independents, represented in yellow, also ticked upward, while Democrats, shown in blue, trended downward into negative territory.
President Donald Trump speaks during his State of the Union address as a live reaction panel assembled by Maslansky & Partners tracks voter responses to his remarks on banning school gender transitions without parental consent. Republicans are shown in red, Independents in yellow and Democrats in blue. (Fox News)
The comments drew applause from Republicans in the chamber, but the president became incensed when he realized that Democrats refused to stand.
«Look, nobody stands up,» Trump said.
«These people are crazy. I’m telling you. They’re crazy,» Trump said, pointing his finger at Democratic senators and House members who remained seated.
Republican reactions stayed elevated during the remarks, while Democratic responses remained negative and independent voters held relatively steady.
Sage Blair and her mother, Michelle Blair, stand in the gallery during President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address after he highlighted her case involving alleged school gender transition policies. (Pool)
Trump made the remarks as he called on Sage Blair, a Virginia teenager whose family filed a 2023 lawsuit alleging that Appomattox County High School staff socially transitioned her without parental knowledge.
According to a lawsuit filed by her family, Blair began identifying as male at school, where staff used male names and pronouns and allowed her to use male facilities without informing her parents.
WATCH: Trump highlights teen whose family says school hid her gender transition during State of the Union
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The family alleges the situation escalated after Blair ran away from home and later became a victim of sex trafficking, with the lawsuit alleging she was kidnapped and raped in multiple states.
Highlighting the case during his address, Trump said Blair was 14 when school officials sought to socially transition her «to a new gender,» treating her as a boy and hiding it from her parents.
«But today, all of that is behind them because Sage is a proud and wonderful young woman with a full-ride scholarship to Liberty University. Sage and Michelle, please stand up,» Trump said as Republicans in the chamber cheered.
«Thank you for your great bravery,» he added.
The gender policy segment generated some of the strongest reactions of the night from the panel.
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President Donald Trump demanded a ban on schools socially transitioning minors without parental consent at Tuesday’s State of the Union. (Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images)
Among supporters, several comments focused on protecting children and parental involvement, including: «Protect children,» and «Parents should be informed.»
Opponents pushed back on the scope of the proposal, writing comments such as: «Every case is unique,» and «A total ban is not good.»
The issue appeared to trigger deeply personal reactions on both sides.
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politics,donald trump,state of the union,congress,woke
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