Social media affects how adolescents communicate, learn, socialize and express themselves, while excessive use carries risks such as addiction, cyberbullying, misinformation, radicalization, privacy violations, inappropriate content, sextortion and “doomscrolling.” A study published in Nature: Human Behaviour found that adolescents who started using social media at an early age had lower academic performance.
Australia became the first country to impose a nationwide social media ban on children under 16. The regulation, which took effect in December, initially covered the following platforms:
- Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, Twitch, X and YouTube
Messaging, gaming and non-social platforms were excluded:
- Discord, GitHub, Roblox, WhatsApp, YouTube Kids and educational tools
Responsibility for enforcement was assigned to the platforms; identity checks, biometrics, facial estimation, algorithms and self-declaration may be used for age verification. While penalties for violations can reach US $35.6 million, approximately 5 million young people’s accounts were removed. Human rights groups drew attention to the risks of restrictions on freedom of expression and social isolation. According to YouGov, 61% of parents reported positive changes, while three-fifths of respondents considered the ban effective.
Why it matters
The regulation shifts the burden of ensuring children’s online safety away from families and toward platforms’ age-verification processes, while the use of identity and biometric data in this process is intensifying the privacy debate. The distinction between services covered by the ban and those excluded from it shows that social media, messaging and gaming platforms are not considered to pose the same level of risk to children. Although initial public opinion data shows that some parents have observed positive changes, the concerns over freedom of expression and social isolation highlighted by human rights groups indicate that success cannot be measured solely by the removal of accounts. The relationship between early use and lower academic performance also connects the debate to educational outcomes, taking it beyond individual habits.
Background
Kids is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 2 news stories mentioning the name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated September 12, 2026.