Australian YouTube family moves to UK to avoid upcoming social media ban

Friday, 31 October 2025 11:30

An Australian YouTube family with almost 1.8 million followers have moved to the UK to avoid the upcoming social media ban for under 16s.

An Australian YouTube family with almost 1.8 million followers have moved to the UK to avoid the upcoming social media ban for under-16s.

From December 10, children and teenagers under the age of 16 will not be allowed to have accounts on a number of social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snpachat, TikTok, X and YouTube.

Western Australia's Empire Family, made up of mums Beck and Bec Lea, 17-year-old son Prezley and 14-year-old Charli, revealed their decision in a video posted to their main channel.

Western Australia's Empire Family revealed their decision in a video posted to their main channel.

The family's main YouTube channel has a collective 1.79 million subscribers, while Prezley's individual YouTube account has gained 2.8 million subscribers.

Charli has just under 550,000 subscribers on YouTube and almost 330,000 followers on a TikTok account managed by her parents.

The 14-year-old's accounts would be impacted by the upcoming ban.

"They haven't defined it exactly, of how it's going to work yet, but at the moment no under 16s are allowed to have social media, it's a protective thing," mum Beck told subscribers.

"We understand that it is protecting young people from harm on the internet, but we use the internet for good.

"When we were looking at it, we were going to go travelling anyway, so we were like 'this is perfect' because we have dual citizenship and British passports.

"We've been wanting to travel for a while so now we go to the UK, we can still use our social media, Charlotte can still use her social media, Prezley is over 16, but it just kind of covers us while Australia figures out the logistics of that rule.

"I think there's going to be a lot of hiccups and a lot of ups and downs.

"We've got a massive UK audience, we've got our passports, so we thought why not?"

The family said they weren't against the social media ban and understood the proposed benefits.

"We understand that it's very important, that there's young people that are affected negatively from social media," Beck said.

"We're not naive to that, it's just that how it affects us and the way we use social media, where we would get caught up."

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