Software testers hired by Australia's government to determine how to enforce the world's first national teen social media ban have worked on defense and election contracts but will use another experience to guide their study: wrangling their own children online.

"We're all parents of kids of various ages, and we're definitely aware of all the little tricks kids do," said Andrew Hammond, general manager at tech contractor KJR that will conduct the trial on about 1,200 randomly chosen Australians from January to March.

"Kids are quite resourceful, so we'll definitely have our eyes and ears open," added Hammond, whose company's previous projects included checking deployment software for Australian troops in Afghanistan.