Social Network Sues Government, Claiming Children Have Rights to Adult-Dominated Platform

Published: December 16, 2025

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By Michaela Gordoni

Reddit believes children should have the right to use its adult-dominated platform, so it is suing the Australian government.

Australia was the first country in the world to impose a social media ban for kids under 16, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Reddit filed a suit against Australia last week in Australia’s highest court. It believes the law is suppressing teens’ right to freedom to engage in political discourse before they reach voting age. It also claims that the law is ineffective at reducing risks to teens and children.

In addition, Reddit is requesting that it not be classified by Australia as an “age-restricted social media platform,” in order to avoid complying with the ban.

The law “carries some serious privacy and political expression issues for everyone on the internet,” Reddit said in a statement. “So, we are filing an application to have the law reviewed.”

“Australian citizens under the age of 16 will, within years if not months, become electors. The choices to be made by those citizens will be informed by political communication in which they engage prior to the age of 18,” it said in its court filing.

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In response to the suit, an Australian representative said the government was “on the side of Australian parents and kids, not platforms” and would “stand firm to protect young Australians from experiencing harm on social media.”

Reddit has a market capitalization of $44 billion. Australia is its fourth-largest market, next to Canada, the UK and the U.S., Engadget reported.

Though logged-out users can’t engage with others, they can still virtually view all of the site’s content.

According to data from this year, only 11% of Reddit users are under 18 while 89% are adults, Exploding Topics reported.

Meta Platforms also criticized the law. It claimed the ban could push kids to less regulated platforms.

“Experts, youth groups, and many parents agree that blanket bans are not the solution—they isolate teens from online communities and information, while providing inconsistent protection across the many apps they use,” a Meta spokesperson said.

Health Minister Mark Butler said Reddit filed the suit to protect profits, not young people’s rights, and “we will fight this action every step of the way,” and “It is action we saw time and time again by Big Tobacco against tobacco control and we are seeing it now by some social media or big tech giants.”

Presently, Malaysia and New Zealand are also considering bans on social media, WION reported.

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