A government-commissioned report that underpinned Australia's ban on social media use by under-16s appears to contain fabricated academic citations, a Senate inquiry has heard. The AU$3.48 million study, conducted by the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) to evaluate age-verification technologies for social media platforms, was found to include references to non-existent journal articles, incorrect Digital Object Identifiers, and at least one paper that was not publicly available until months after ACCS claimed to have accessed it. ACCS initially denied using AI but later admitted ChatGPT had been used to rewrite sections of the report, with metadata embedded in web links within the document confirming this; the Australian government said it is now examining the concerns and engaging with ACCS, while an independent senator called on authorities to demand an apology and a refund from the contractor.