Australia tried to keep kids off social media. Its ban has had the opposite effect.

When the Australian government announced sweeping restrictions on youth social media access, the goal was to keep kids safe by preventing them from encountering harmful content on their feeds. About nine months after that law went into effect, however, it is not looking terribly effective.

According to data provided by Qustodio, Australian kids and teens are still accessing their favorite social media apps, even after officials in Canberra kicked those under-18s off their accounts. Among some age groups, social media usage has actually gone up, suggesting that Australia’s law may be accomplishing the opposite of what it was meant to do.

Qustodio, a software company known for its parental controls, collected anonymized screen time data from 19,000 Australian families. Within that sample, 26% of teens between the ages of 13 and 15 are active on TikTok. Before the ban went into effect, that percentage sat at 27%. And more 10-to-12-year-olds are now active on TikTok compared to the pre-ban era.

On the Australian version of WhatsApp, teen usage has gone up. About 27% of Australian 13-to-15-year-olds were active on Meta’s messaging service before the ban, but that figure now sits at 36%.

The tech companies targeted by the Australian law have tried to comply with it, but they’ve also criticized the ineffectiveness

of the measure. Qustodio’s findings show that the naysayers have a point: Whether through dummy accounts, VPNs, or other means, Australian youngsters are finding their way back to their feeds.

“What we’ve seen is an immediate drop to a degree,” said Qustodio Global Online Safety Expert Yasmin London. “Slowly but surely, the numbers have started to increase again to almost equivalent levels.”

It’s not just Australia, either. Indonesian channels aimed at young viewers are surging in our Global Top 50 ranking, even though officials in Jakarta followed Australia’s lead this past March. In the growing number of countries that are restricting youth social media use, the kids are staying active.

As federal entites try to restrict kids and teens on social media, they are also pursuing legal cases that hold platforms liable for the mental health effects of their infinitely scrolling feeds. As those cases are argued, companies like YouTube, TikTok, and Meta are often scolded for their perceived laissez-faire attitudes regarding safety. Qustodio, however, is showing that keeping people off social media is a Herculean task. Big Tech may struggle to protect its user base, but national governments aren’t faring much better.