Australia’s government mounted a defence on Saturday of its world-first ban on social media for children under 16, even as fresh data revealed the scale of the challenge confronting the landmark policy.

In a study published on Friday, eSafety also found most children aged between 10 and 15 were using social media just as frequently in March as they had before the ban came into…

ESafety says most underage users were able to keep their accounts or create new ones, which was mostly due to a lack of effective age checks on the platforms, it added.