Social Media Ban - eSafety Commissioner Advice

The eSafety Commissioner has published a helpful Social Media Age Restrictions Hub. This includes advice for Young People, Families & Educators.

The social media age restrictions take effect on 10 December 2025.

Social Media Ban & YouTube

The Australian Government has implemented a Social Media ban for people under the age of 16. This will have some direct and indirect consequences for ACS:

Quick Overview of Social Media Ban:

The law mandates that from Dec 10 2025 social media platforms must take "reasonable steps" to verify the age of their users and prevent those under 16 from creating or maintaining an account. The responsibility for enforcement rests entirely with the social media companies. There are no penalties for children or parents who manage to circumvent the ban.
The ban will apply to major social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and X (formerly Twitter). After much debate, the government has confirmed that YouTube will be included in the ban.

Impact on YouTube at ACS from Dec 8 2025:

ACS will stop issuing YouTube accounts to all students as this is required for students under 16 under the new legislation.
ACS will force the logged-out version of YouTube that students access from ACS devices into YouTube's "moderate content restrictions" mode. This is a mode that uses algorithms to detect and block content that may be inappropriate for young people.
YouTube can only be reliably used in class through either:
- Showing YouTube via Vivi to the whole class using the screen at the front of the room. It is recommended to use Vivi's Play Content feature to ensure a smooth experience
- By a teacher embedding the YouTube video into a Google Classroom
Note: ICT Services no longer has any ability to specifically allowlist a video that is blocked. The video can only be shown using one of the two methods above.

eSafety Commissioner - Social Media Age Restrictions

Guide: Vivi - "Play Content" feature

Guide: Google Classroom - YouTube Embed Feature

Migrating from Zoom to Google Meet

ACS will be migrating from Zoom to Google Meet for 2026. Google Meet is fully featured and well integrated into other Google Workspace tools.

All staff have been issued a Google Meet Premium license.
Staff are asked to begin using Google Meet from now through the end of the year.
Zoom will remain available until the 31st Dec 2025. Staff will need to download any Zoom recordings they wish to keep beyond this date.
Next year staff will be able to join Zoom meetings from other organisations but will be unable to host a Zoom meeting.

Guide: Google Meet - Start or Schedule a Meeting

Guide: Google Meet - Record a meeting

Wi-Fi: From DIOCESE to ACS and ACS GUEST

ICT Services is splitting our current WiFi network into two new networks in order to improve Cyber Security. The current DIOCESE network is being steadily decommissioned and devices migrated to one of two new networks: ACS for trusted organisation-owned devices, and ACS GUEST for untrusted personal devices.

What this means:

ACS: You may have noticed that organisation owned devices have been steadily and silently migrating across to ACS from DIOCESE over the last few months. Devices on this network can access organisation services.
ACS GUEST: Personal devices can be connected to ACS GUEST, for security reasons these devices are unable to access most organisation services.
DIOCESE: DIOCESE will be steadily phased out over the coming months:
- Next week: Students won't be able to connect personal devices to DIOCESE.
- Week 7: Staff won't be able to connect personal devices to DIOCESE.
- Personal devices may begin showing errors when attempting to connect to DIOCESE.
- Staff and students can connect personal devices to ACS GUEST from now using their standard ACS username and password.

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