Australia BANS Social Media for Teenagers Under 16

Starting from December 10th of 2025, Australia became the first country in the world to ban under-16s from having social media accounts across platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Reddit. The ban resulted in 4.7 million accounts being revoked and have caused other countries to consider implementing this ban.

The government point out how 7 out of 10 children using social media had had been exposed to harmful content, included content promoting eating disorders, violence, and suicide. The government stated that this action will allow the "kids to have their childhoods back". Communication Minister of Australia, Anika Wells, described the act of using social media as "being sucked into purgatory" and "behavioural cocaine".

The implementation of this law has caused extreme outrage among Australian teenagers. Ella Lucia, an Australian influencer under the age of 16, voiced "I think they should be removing the harmful content instead of removing us". Furthermore, others have called out the ban as unnecessary and devastating. Some are saying restrictions and time limits on apps would be useful, but say a full ban is unnecessary. Critics are questioning the effectiveness of the ban when it does not ban platforms such as Roblox and Discord.

But is the ban really necessary? We don't know yet. We would need to examine the statistical data on teenagers such as depression, suicidal attempts, happiness levels and more through out more years. Personally, as a teenager under 16, I stand by the belief that the ban is unnecessary. Sure, it would stop teenagers from being exposed to harmful content; However, the government is failing to see how social media is now deeply rooted in our daily lives. Students now use youtube to learn, instagram for self expression, reddit to discuss subjects, and snapchat to connect with friends. Removing social media would be equivalent to banning the use of search engines when writing a research paper.