Australia Bans Social Media Use for Children Under 16
Photo by Ben Wicks
A week ago I finished reading Nir Eyal’s bestselling book ‘Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products’. The book teaches how to build habit forming products and increase customer engagement through strategic product design. And while being a fantastic read explaining just how to go about creating such products, it does also briefly address the question of ethics in such practices.
After reading Hooked I wondered, why don’t social media products have warning labels? Maybe a pop-up every hour of use, especially for minors, reminding them of the dangers of prolonged social media use? Tobacco products come with warning labels. So does alcohol. Why not Instagram or Facebook, when they are specifically engineered to be habit forming products?
So where does a company draw the line between profit and social responsibility? When we think of our daily lives and the habit-forming products that come to mind, for the majority of people I know products like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok come to mind. It feels strange to call them ‘products’ doesn’t it? But that is precisely what they are. Also, have you heard the phrase “If it’s free, you are the product”? Online services like social media, search engines, apps, collect your personal data, attention, and behavior analytics and sell them to advertisers, making you the actual commodity, not the customer. And in order to do so profitably, your attention (time spent) on any given one of their habit forming products is being monetized. Habit forming products like social media apps have greatly contributed to a mental health crisis worldwide. No one is immune against armies of neuroscientists and psychologists that are employed by many of these companies, to find ways of hooking you into their service faster and for a longer period of time. It is no wonder then that children and young adults suffer the most when it comes to having their lives adversely affected by their use of social media products by way of cyberbullying, harmful content and online predators.
Today one brave nation decided to enact a first of its kind ban on social media for everyone under the age 16, commencing December 10. That nation is Australia. Kids and teens cannot set up new accounts and existing profiles are being deactivated.
To quote the BBC “The government says it will reduce the negative impact of social media's "design features that encourage [young people] to spend more time on screens, while also serving up content that can harm their health and wellbeing". A study it commissioned earlier in 2025 found that 96% of children aged 10-15 used social media, and that seven out of 10 of them had been exposed to harmful content. This included misogynistic and violent material as well as content promoting eating disorders and suicide. One in seven also reported experiencing grooming-type behaviour from adults or older children, and more than half said they had been the victim of cyberbullying.”
Ten platforms are currently included: Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Reddit and streaming platforms Kick and Twitch.
The government assesses potential sites against three main criteria:
whether the platform's sole or "significant purpose" is to enable online social interaction between two or more users;
whether it allows users to interact with some or all other users; and
whether it allows users to post material
YouTube Kids, Google Classroom and WhatsApp are not covered as they are not deemed to meet those criteria. Under-16s will also still be available to view most content on online platforms which do not require an account. Critics have called on the government to extend the ban to cover online gaming sites like Roblox and Discord, which are not currently included.”
“Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32.9 million) from Wednesday if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts of Australian children younger than 16.” - NPR
Allegedly it takes Meta about an hour and 52 minutes to make A$50 million in revenue, as per former Facebook executive Stephen Scheeler
There of course has been some pushback. Following the announcement of the ban, accounts have been popping up claiming to be persons under 16 years of age, unhappy with the recent developments and allegedly threatening to vote against the party the implemented the ban when they come of age. Are these real accounts or armies of bots unleashed by unhappy social media platform giants? We will never know, but one thing is for certain. Australian children, forcefully detached from the opportunity to post on Instagram, compare their lives to others via Facebook feed and receive messages from bullies and predators, may have a chance at what we millennials still remember. A childhood spent mostly outdoors with friends, socializing and building connections with the world around us in real time. I for one, hope that when it comes to exposing underage kids to social media, other nations follow the footsteps of Australia.