The Social Media Ban for U16s - Part 1: How did we get here?

This is Part 1 of our special short series on the social media ban for kids under 16yo…

On 10 December, world-first legislation will come into effect in Australia banning social media for anyone under the age of 16. And depending on who you ask, it's either a bold move to protect kids or government overreach that won't work. So, in the first of this special 3-part series, we'll look at:

• how we got to this point

• who was pushing for the ban

• and why it became such a political no-brainer...

Prefer to listen or watch?

Listen to Andrew Williams and Bryce Corbett cover this topic in this Squiz Shortcut podcast episode, or check it out on YouTube - and hit subscribe while you’re at it.

Listen time: 11 minutes

Squiz the Shortcut

Let’s rewind a bit… What’s the bill actually called?
When people talk about the 'teen social media ban', what they're actually referring to is the Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024. It’s quite a mouthful…

Sure is… So, which apps are included?
The laws will apply to a number of apps, but the most popular ones are Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, and Facebook (although statistically, it’s mostly over-50yos on FB these days…).

What happens if kids find a way around it?
The onus is on social media platforms to make sure their users are over the age of 16 or they’ll face fines of up to $50 million. The big tech companies who run the apps have got a year to get their ducks in a row before those penalties kick in…

Going back to the start, what prompted the new laws?
To answer that, we need to look at the various players who helped to put pressure on the government… There were various flashpoints in the lead up to the legislation being passed, with different people and groups all pushing for it. One of those was Annabel West - the wife of South Australian Premier, Peter Malinauskas.

How did Annabel influence things?
She's a mum of 4 young kids, and after she read US academic Jonathan Haidt's bestselling book The Anxious Generation, which is subtitled ‘How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness’, she implored her husband to do something about it. He got together with NSW Premier Chris Minns and organised a Social Media Summit.

What happened at the Social Media Summit?
There were some interesting people there, including our own Squiz Kids’ Bryce Corbett who’s developed our free media literacy program, Newshounds, and radio presenter Michael Wipfli (aka Wippa from Nova Sydney's Fitzy and Wippa breakfast show).

Why was Wippa there?
Months earlier, he and a mate, Rob Galluzzo from the production company Finch, had started a movement called 36 Months. The 36 Months referred to the 3 years they wanted to win back for Aussie kids - demanding the government introduce legislation banning kids from social media until they were 16.

Why 3 years?
Because at that point, lots of the platforms had a minimum age of 13yo for account holders - and with the help of Wippa's media profile, the petition they created on change.org quickly gathered momentum. By the time the Summit rolled around, they had over 125,000 signatures - parents mostly - calling on the government to step in and do something. 

Was it just grassroots campaigns that moved the dial?
Nope… Around the same time, News Corp launched a national campaign via its metro tabloids around the country called 'Let Them Be Kids' - similarly calling for a social media ban for under 16s...

So, public support for a social media policy was gaining traction?
Exactly… By the time the Albanese Government turned its attention to it, with a federal election looming, it had an issue on its radar that ticked a lot of boxes politically. 

What were the boxes it ticked?
The main one was that it appealed to a lot of parents - who happen to be voters. It also gave the impression that the government was prepared to stand up to big tech and large multi-nationals (building on eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant’s action against Elon Musk’s X over online content issues), and it happened to play into the hands of the biggest media company in the country, News Corp, in the lead up to an election. That support never hurt any government…

Has the bill encountered opposition?
Yes… Youth mental health advocates have spoken out about the legislation, saying that for many isolated, alienated young people, the online communities they’ve formed on social media platforms are a vital lifeline. Other media commentators said that the ban was “taking a sledgehammer to a complex issue.” And now there’s also a High Court challenge to the legislation launched by a couple of teenagers…

Who are they?
Two 15yos - Noah Jones and Macy Neyland - who claim to be “representative” of the cohort that stand to be impacted by the laws. They’ve taken the action along with advocacy group Digital Freedom Project, claiming the laws breach their “constitutional right” to freedom of political communication. But their arguments so far haven’t persuaded the government to change its mind… 

Was there much support for the bill when it was introduced in parliament?
Yep… It had bipartisan support from the outset. Not even a determined effort by the crossbenchers, who opposed it on the grounds that it was rushed legislation and a “band-aid solution” to a nuanced issue, could stop it. 

What did the PM say once it had passed?
Albanese said: "Social media is doing social harm to young Australians and I am calling time on it. I want Australian parents to know that we have your back”... He went on to say that the ban would get kids off their phones and back out onto the streets, into suburban playgrounds and sporting fields, interacting with each other rather than being on their phones. 

That’s a nostalgic picture…
The reaction from big tech wasn't quite as rose-coloured… That noise you could hear at the time was a thousand corporate lawyers in Silicon Valley scrambling to see how and if they might fight the ban. And the timing couldn't have been more interesting, given what was happening in the US…

What was going on there?
At the time, newly elected President Donald Trump was welcoming a line of big tech CEOs to his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, and each one of them was pleading their case for less government regulation over their activities. Not long after, Mark Zuckerberg announced the end of fact checking on Facebook and Instagram. Then there was Trump’s inauguration…

What happened at the President’s inauguration?
The CEOs of every big tech company in America were seated in prime position behind Trump on the dais. Photographs of it went around the world, and the image implied that the tech bros held serious sway with him. That raised some pretty big questions for Australia… 

What sort of questions?
Things like: Would plucky little Australia's teen social media ban now make it a target for Trump's tit-for-tat trade tariffs? And, would Australia's world-first legislation be watered down if it caused a trade war and damaged relations with one of our biggest trading partners? Only one thing was certain - the world was heating up the popcorn and settling in to watch it play out… 

What’s in store next?
In Part 2, we'll look at the confusion as the rubber hits the road… No one seems to know how the ban is going to work in practice, while tech platforms engage in a sort of corporate Hunger Games in the scramble to be ruled in or out of it. Strap in…

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Onto our Recommendations

Reading: This article by the ABC looks at the High Court challenge to the upcoming laws by 2 Aussie teens.

Reading: This piece by The Guardian talks about similar moves overseas to ban social media for teens, including a resolution passed by the EU… 

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