With a TikTok ban looming in the United States, users are flocking to RedNote (also known as Little Red Book), a Chinese app that looks similar to Instagram.

But in Australia, where TikTok has not been immediately banned, downloads of the app are soaring. Not only does it tell us about TikTok, it also exposes problems with Australia's impending social media age ban.

RedNote has 300 million users, mostly in China, but has added about 700,000 new users in a matter of days as TikTok users look for alternatives.

Dr Alexia Maddox, director of digital education at La Trobe University, said there were three possible reasons Australians downloaded RedNote.

These include Australian users following their US counterparts, especially as content creators shift, strategic moves to protect usernames and build presence on emerging apps, and a possible upcoming social media ban for under-16s.

“While this is speculative at this stage, the patterns of platform migration we are seeing are consistent with what we know about how users respond to regulatory changes – both anticipated and actual,” she said.

ByteDance faces a January 19 deadline to sell TikTok or face a U.S. ban on national security grounds. TikTok is used by about 170 million Americans, roughly half the country's population, and is extremely popular among young people and advertisers who want to reach them.

But the ban remains pending as the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to decide whether to suspend the TikTok ban and Donald Trump is set to return to the U.S. presidency next week.

There is currently no sign that Australia will follow the United States and ban everyone from using TikTok. There were loud calls for this from some within the Coalition in 2023 and 2024, but those calls have mostly died down in the months since - Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, for example, has a TikTok account as he prepares for the federal election.

Even as TikTok struggles in the United States, it is announcing new Australia-focused projects and hiring staff there.

But the emergence of new social media platforms — even ones that may only be briefly popular in the U.S. or Australia — raises questions about what actions governments would take if a new app exempt from the under-16 ban became popular. What measures.

Under the law passed by parliament, the communications minister will decide this year which platforms will be affected by the ban. It is expected to include at least TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram.

Websites or apps that refuse to verify users are 18 or over could be blocked in Australia under proposed code for adult websites that will soon be considered.

RedNote's surge in popularity among Australian teenagers may mean it will be added to the list, but unlike other apps, the app has almost no presence in Australia. While RedNote could face fines worth millions of dollars for not complying, it's unclear how this will be enforced.

If RedNote doesn't comply, it's unclear whether it would be simple to order Apple and Google to remove the app from their stores.

The situation highlights how the government may have to play whack-a-mole once a ban is implemented, adding a new app to the list whenever it is deemed popular among teenagers and causing concern among parents. When teens get banned from a new app, they look for another app, or a platform not covered by the ban, such as online forums.

The government's reasoning is that doing something is better than doing nothing, and it is expected that teenagers will turn to other services or find ways around age protection.

This all comes as trials of age-guaranteed technology are about to begin. According to a timetable published by the ACCS, providers who choose to participate in the trial must complete comprehensive testing of four different age-checking methods within the next three months.

This included hard verification using ID documents, testing a dataset of 4,000 legitimate, fake and altered ID documents such as driver's licenses and passports. It will also look into age estimation technology such as biometrics, such as scanning someone's face, or testing their voice or gestures, the document said.

The trial will also look into age inference methods to determine age by looking at a user's browser behavior or online activity or purchase history without breaching "privacy policies and properly anonymizing data where required".

According to the project plan, all these tests need to be completed by April, with reports to be submitted to the government in June. That will be after the next federal election, so it will be up to whoever is the communications minister to decide how to respond.