Reddit argued that Australia’s under-16 social-media account restrictions burden political communication, while the Commonwealth defended the rules by pointing to risks linked to shared platform features. The High Court of Australia’s docket identifies the case as Reddit, Inc. v Commonwealth of Australia & Anor, Case No. S166/2025, and frames the constitutional question as whether Part 4A of the Online Safety Act 2021 (Cth) is invalid wholly or partly because it impermissibly burdens the implied freedom of political communication. The docket lists Full Court hearings in Canberra on November 3 and 4, 2026, in the court record.
NeoTeo previously covered Reddit’s challenge to Australia’s under-16 account law.
What Part 4A requires
Part 4A requires providers of certain kinds of social-media platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent people under 16 from having accounts. The court’s question concerns whether that requirement places an impermissible burden on the implied freedom of political communication.
Reddit’s argument about account access
In hearing reports published November 3, Reddit argued that young people could still view content without an account but could not post, comment or upvote. Reddit’s case was that losing those account functions limits young people’s ability to participate in political discussion online.
Reddit also proposed alternatives: a digital duty of care bill, limits on push notifications or time spent on platforms, and parental controls for children’s accounts. These proposals appeared in the account of Reddit’s submissions by The Guardian.
The Commonwealth’s argument about platform design
The Commonwealth argued that features such as autoplay, recommendations, default notifications and the promotion of popular content are widely shared across covered platforms and can combine to increase risks to children. Its barrister, Joanna Davidson SC, presented those points as the government’s case for the restrictions, not as findings by the court. The Guardian reported the submissions.
The reported account figure
The Guardian reported that platforms had suspended or deactivated more than 5 million accounts they understood to belong to under-16s, across ten services, since the restrictions took effect in December 2025. The figure is an aggregate attributed to platform estimates; Reddit was among the services the newspaper listed as covered at the time.
