Australia’s eSafety Commissioner added Twitch to the country’s under-16 social media ban after determining the streaming platform met criteria for the restriction.

In a statement explaining the decision, the department noted it was guided by Twitch’s self-assessment.

It added the platform has the “sole or significant purpose” of online social interaction with features designed to encourage user interaction.

Starting 10 December, Twitch will join Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X and YouTube in being required to take reasonable steps to prevent children under the age of 16 from having accounts.

The regulator also informed Pinterest it does not meet the criteria for an age-restricted social media platform, noting that while the image-sharing platform enables some social interaction, it “is not the significant purpose”.

In September, the agency provided a self-assessment tool to help the industry understand if a platform is required to comply with the social media minimum age.