As of December 10th, 2025, a social media ban for Australians under 16 years old has gone into effect. Over 1 million accounts on platforms such as Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchat, and other social media sites have been deactivated due to users being under the age of 16 in an effort from the government to keep children protected from the addictive nature of the internet.
“With one law, we can protect Generation Alpha from being sucked into purgatory by predatory algorithms described by the man who created the feature as ‘behavioral cocaine,’” Australian Communications Minister Anika Wells shared, showcasing the good intentions behind the ban. A national study done by the Australian government in 2024 reported that 96% of children aged 10 to 15 use social media, and seven out of ten of them have been exposed to harmful content at some point. Many people across the world have felt similar concerns about the effects social media is having on children, and the Australian government considered this ban to be the first step towards keeping children safe, and expect that other countries will likely follow suit.
However, some citizens argue that this restriction could cause more problems than it solves. Noah Jones is one Australian teenager being affected by the ban who has a different perspective on the matter. “We should be cutting off the bad things about social media,” argued Jones. “When kids do things in secret, that’s when things can be really harmful.” As the saying goes, “strict parents don’t make obedient kids, they make sneaky kids.” To many minors, social media is a space to express themselves when they otherwise couldn’t. Most of the kids under the restrictions will find ways around them, which has the potential to put them in even more addictive and dangerous scenarios than they would’ve been in by just using social media regularly.
On top of that, the ban may not have even worked as intended. When she woke up the morning after the ban went into action, Australian teenager Sophie opened Tiktok expecting to find it inactive, only to see a video of the Prime Minister talking about how no one under 16 would be using social media today. “I feel like every Australian under 16 would have opened TikTok up to find that video—like, this is a bit awkward,” 15 year old Sophie said. “It’s a bit embarrassing, because other countries are like ‘Australia’s been doing this new thing,’ they’ve been talking about it.” So far, the ban on social media has been applied very unevenly, and some teenagers are being booted out of online social circles, while others are able to continue on like nothing happened.
While there are good intentions behind Australia’s social media ban, this may not be as clear cut a solution as many were hoping for. The Australian government believes that many other countries will soon be following behind with social media bans of their own, but people across the globe continue to wonder if that really is the best thing to do. In the modern world, the internet is inevitable. It’s used in work, school, and leisure, so cutting off the growing population from one of the main uses of it seems impractical. Instead of trying to cut things off altogether, perhaps the goal should return to educating children on using social media safely. Should the United States follow in Australia’s footsteps and attempt to cut off addictive sites altogether, or should we focus on preparing minors to utilize social media safely?
