Children under 16 face new reality with Australia's social media ban
Australia's new law banning social media for children under 16 has left young users feeling isolated and concerned, as they grapple with the impact of this unprecedented change.
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Children younger than 16 in Australia have officially begun their new reality living without social media, following its ban in the country, as of December 10.
Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Reddit are forbidden from creating or keeping accounts belonging to users under 16 in Australia.
Streaming platforms Kick and Twitch are also on the government's blacklist, as are Threads and X.
The laws came into effect after midnight local time across Australia. Hundreds of thousands of adolescents woke up to find themselves locked out of apps they once scrolled through for hours each day.
Bianca Navarro, 10, was already counting the years until she could log in again to YouTube.
"It will be pretty sad because I have six years until I can watch it," she told AFP.
As of December 10, children under 16 in Australia are officially barred from social media, sparking mixed reactions from young users.
Image: Unsplash/Graphic News
ABC News reported that Riley Allen, a 15-year-old schoolboy, was worried about how he would keep in contact with his friends.
“I don’t think the impact will be very positive for us. We don’t have a lot out here to get in contact with each other,” Riley said.
“I’m not sure how we’re going to keep in touch over the holidays with each other.”
Schoolboy Noah Jones, who lives in Sydney, is one of two 15-year-old plaintiffs in a constitutional challenge to the law in the High Court.
“I’m against this social media ban because as young Australians, we’ll be completely silenced and cut off from our country and the rest of the world,” Jones said.
“We’ve just grown up with this our entire lives, and now it's just being taken away from us all of a sudden. We wouldn’t even know what else we could do.”
BBC interviewed teenagers in Sydney, Brisbane and Canberra to hear their views on the ban.
They ranged from supportive to undecided to downright critical. Jacinta, 14, says she's "insulted" that the government "don't trust me with the internet. She also says her family "love the idea of the ban.
Meanwhile, Oliver, also 14, says he'll find the new rules "annoying", but he thinks he'll "quickly get over it."
IOL