A 14-year-old boy has been able to pass Snapchat’s visual age check, with the platform warning about the difficulty in enforcing Australia’s social media ban for those aged under 16.

Charlie*, a Sydney-based teen, received a notification last week advising him he needed to go through an age check to keep his Snapchat account as a result of the ban, which takes full effect on Wednesday.

Like many of his peers, the teen said the date of birth on his account – created years earlier – would put him over the age of 16, but he was asked to go through a check regardless.

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He chose a facial age estimation technology, provided by tech company k-ID, in which users take a selfie that is then assessed to estimate their age.

Charlie quickly passed as over 16.

“Basically [it said]: ‘Thank you, we won’t bother you any more’,” he said. “I was a bit surprised I got through, to be honest.”

Contacted about the case, a spokesperson for Snapchat said it had previously “expressed concerns about the technical challenges that the government and companies would face in trying to effectively prevent young people from accessing online platforms”.

“This is one such challenge,” the spokesperson said on Monday. “We continue to believe there are better solutions to age verification that can be implemented at the primary points of entry, such as the operating system (OS), device, or app store levels.”

The spokesperson also said the company will allow parents to report a child’s account if they want it flagged as underage.

‘For every parent’

In an opinion piece published by News Corp on Sunday, the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said “we’ve acknowledged this process won’t be 100% perfect”.

“But the message this law sends will be 100% clear,” he said. “Australia sets the legal drinking age at 18 because our society recognises the ­benefits to the individual and the community of such an ­approach.

“The fact that teenagers occasionally find a way to have a drink doesn’t diminish the value of having a clear, ­national standard.”

Charlie’s mother, Christine*, said she was now “looking for some way to report my child”.

“It’s kind of stupid because if they’re relying on face ID and an algorithm based on what they search for, is there even a difference between a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old?” Christine said.

“It just seems like we’re not going to win … I hope we do though.”

Her son said he also uses Instagram and TikTok, and has not received notifications about his age on those services.

Both platforms are included in the social media ban and are complying with the new laws.

There are clear processes in place for companies that plan to comply with the ban for teens over 16 who are wrongly banned. But it is not clear whether all platforms will allow parents to report that their children are underage.

A spokesperson for TikTok said the company would not stop looking for suspected underage accounts, and one may successfully bypass the ban and later be flagged.

Meta platforms included in the ban – Instagram and Facebook – also allow people to report underage users in-app.

In his piece on Sunday, Albanese also said the government is “doing this for every parent”.

“This law is about making it easier for you to have a conversation with your child about the risks and harms of engaging online,” he said. “It’s also about helping parents push back against peer pressure.

“You don’t have to worry that by stopping your child using ­social media, you’re somehow making them the odd one out. Now, instead of trying to set a ‘family rule’, you can point to a national ban.”

*Names have been changed for privacy reasons