{"id":791,"date":"2026-06-18T12:34:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:34:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/is-australias-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-working\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T12:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T12:34:10","slug":"is-australias-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/06\/18\/is-australias-social-media-ban-for-under-16s-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Australia\u2019s social media ban for under 16s working?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/span> Bricolage\/Shutterstock<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n

When Australia banned under 16-year-olds from using social media in December 2025, it became a test case for a policy now being pursued by governments around the world. <\/p>\n

Six months on, the UK has announced plans to introduce its own social media ban in 2027<\/a>, with France, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greece<\/a> among other countries pursuing similar bans. <\/p>\n

So how\u2019s it going in Australia? Have the teenagers emerged from a phone-lit glow to reengage in the real world? And what kind of difference is it having on their mental health?<\/p>\n

In this episode of The Conversation Weekly<\/a>, we speak to Susan Sawyer, a professor of adolescent mental health at the University of Melbourne, who is running a number of ongoing studies examining the way young people and their parents are reacting to Australia\u2019s ban. <\/p>\n

Sawyer says that when the ban was first introduced, she was cynical about the government\u2019s ability to get young people off social media \u2013 and it has been difficult. In a compliance report released in March 2026, Australia\u2019s eSafety Commission said many young people<\/a> were still able to access social media, and it launched investigations<\/a> into five technology companies it feels haven\u2019t done enough to comply with the ban. <\/p>\n

Yet while she used to think of the ban as a blunt instrument, Sawyer says her views are changing. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing that conversations are shifting from whether social media negatively affects young people or to what extent or in what ways, to rather thinking about what age might be a more appropriate age for young people to first gain access to social media,\u201d says Sawyer.<\/p>\n

And that is born out by some of Sawyer\u2019s research. In a recent poll of more than 2,000 parents of 0- to 17-year-olds, just under 40% said the law had changed their view on when children should first have their social media accounts and \u201coverwhelmingly, that\u2019s now a higher age\u201d, she says. <\/p>\n

Listen to Sawyer on The Conversation Weekly<\/a> podcast, and read an article she\u2019s written about her latest research on the impact of high social media use on mental health<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n

This episode of The Conversation Weekly was written and produced by Gemma Ware, Katie Flood and Mend Mariwany. Mixing by Eleanor Brezzi and theme music by Neeta Sarl.<\/em><\/p>\n

Newsclips in this episode from pmaulinauskasmp<\/a>, BBC News<\/a> and 9News Australia<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n

Listen to The Conversation Weekly via any of the apps listed above, download it directly via our RSS feed<\/a> or find out how else to listen here<\/a>. A transcript of this episode is available via the Apple Podcasts or Spotify apps.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Susan M. Sawyer receives funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council. She is a member of the Australian eSafety Commission’s Academic Advisory Committee that is advising on the evaluation of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age Act.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bricolage\/Shutterstock When Australia banned under 16-year-olds from using social media in December 2025, it became a test case for a policy now being pursued by governments around the world. Six months on, the UK has announced plans to introduce its own social media ban in 2027, with France, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greece among other countries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/791\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redzine.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}