Australia's War on Privacy Continues, and Now It's Coming for AI, Search, and App Stores

It’s likely that anyone who uses the internet has heard about Australia’s social media ban for teenagers, which occurred in December 2025. At the time, it felt like a bold move, but even then, it was already painfully clear that many more will follow in its footsteps, regardless of if the plan was actually effective. Well, now that all of it already happened, we’re about to see the next phase.

Australia’s internet regulator, eSafety, just warned that it may force app stores and search engines to block AI services that fail to verify user ages before a March 9 deadline. And a Reuters review of the 50 most popular AI tools found that more than half haven't taken any visible steps to comply.

App Stores and Search Engines Are Now in the Crosshairs

From March 9, any internet service operating in Australia, including chat-based tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT and a long list of companion chatbots, must prevent users under 18 from accessing pornography, extreme violence, self-harm content, and eating disorder material. Companies that don't comply face fines of up to A$49.5 million (roughly $35 million USD).

Of course, everyone was already aware of it from the start of this half-baked mess. What's new is who eSafety is now threatening to hold responsible if AI platforms don't fall in line.

"eSafety will use the full range of our powers where there is non-compliance," a spokesperson said, specifically naming app stores and search engines as targets for enforcement as "gatekeeper services" that control access to non-compliant platforms.

In other words, if the AI companies won't fix it, the responsibility will simply get thrown onto someone else until one eventually gives in. Australia is prepared to go after Apple, Google, and anyone else who helps users reach them.

More Than Half the AI Industry Isn't Ready

Of the 50 popular text-based AI products Reuters reviewed, only nine had rolled out or announced age assurance systems. Another eleven applied blanket content filters or planned to block Australian users entirely. The remaining thirty had done nothing visible at all.

Among the bigger names, ChatGPT, Replika, and Anthropic's Claude had started implementing age checks or stronger filters. Character.AI restricted open-ended chat for users under 18. But those are the exceptions.

Three-quarters of companion chatbot services had no functioning or announced age verification systems. Elon Musk's Grok stood out even among the non-compliant crowd: no age assurance measures, no content filters, and xAI didn't respond to press requests at all.

eSafety's concerns go beyond content access. The regulator said it was worried about AI platforms using "emotional manipulation, anthropomorphism, and other advanced techniques to entice, entrance, and entrench young people into excessive chatbot usage." Australia has already received reports of children as young as 10 spending up to six hours a day on AI chat tools.

The Playbook Behind the Power Grab

eSafety's threat to go after app stores and search engines means the regulator isn't just pressuring AI developers. It's targeting the infrastructure that gets users to those tools in the first place.

Apple said it would use "reasonable methods" to stop minors from downloading 18+ apps, without specifying what those methods are. Google, Australia's dominant search engine and second-largest app store operator globally, declined to comment entirely.

Critics have already flagged the obvious gap: users can bypass app stores by accessing AI services directly through a browser. Age-gating at the store level doesn't stop anyone who knows how to type a URL.

And let’s not forget two major factors that are the key reason why I and many more privacy advocates are so critical of such laws. One, kids will find workarounds regardless, only those will be much more dangerous for both them and others, so unless you’re planning to ban the whole internet, this won’t work. And two, age verification always requires data collection, which is almost never properly contained and always either gets leaked, used against people, or both.

So what is this really about then? Is it government control? Or perhaps Australia is just so desperate that it’s once again doing whatever comes to mind first without actually thinking it through? You choose. But in any case, get ready, too, because we’re sure to see many other governments follow in line, just like before.