Australia bans social media for teens
At what age do you think kids can start using social media?
(This includes sites like Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, etc)
In Australia 95% of kids between 10 and 15 use social media
In Japan 61% of elementary school kids from 4th-6th grade use Line.
Are you surprised by these numbers?
In December 2025, Australia banned people under 16 from having social media accounts on 10 platforms. 2 million users were immediately blocked from accessing their accounts.
Two thirds of voters (who are over 18) supported the ban.
Why did the government decide to do this?
The government is trying to protect teens from harmful content.
70% of kids between 10 and 15 said they had seen posts about eating disorders, self-harm, suicide, and violence.
social media can harm people’s mental health. Teens sleep less, can’t focus on studying and are more likely to get depressed
depressed (adj), depression (noun) = feel very sad for a long timeTeens are more likely to develop body-image issues. They are more likely to feel depressed or have an eating disorder
Kids that age are too young to understand how their personal information is being used by the social media companies
One in 7 reported being groomed by older kids are adults on social media
groom someone = communicate with a young person to date them in the future
Can you think of any reasons social media shouldn’t be banned for under 16’s?
reduce isolation - teens who live in the countryside or move because of their parents jobs use SNS to maintain or create frienships
people lose support networks. Many teens find friends online with similar interests or lifestyles but they can’t meet these people in real life. (religious groups, fan groups, LGBT groups, disability groups)
teens and kids with disabilities are usually unable to spend time with friends in person
Digital literacy is now a necessary life skill. They will be years behind their peers in other countries
Would you like Japan to have the same ban?
The companies were allowed to choose themselves how to check people’s ages. The main 3 systems were:
checking live photos of the user
uploading ID
behaviour tracking
What behaviour do companies look for to indicate the users are under 16?
Liking many photos and following young people
Slang they use
Messages they write. Eg. “Tomorrow my best friend will turn 15!”
Most of their friends are under 16
The times of day they use SNS
How can teens get around the rules to access social media?
Some kids used a VPN which changes your location to a different country
Many kids used photos from their older siblings, parents or AI generated photos of themselves looking older.
Many parents didn’t mind their kids using their photos.
Tech companies say they have technology that can analyze user behaviour and identify if they are underage. This hasn’t been used yet though.
France is considering a similar ban for kids under 15.
In July this year the UK imposed new online safety rules that impacted companies like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and Google.
These sites are responsible for ensuring people under 18 can’t see mature content on their sites (violence, pornography, suicidal opinions)
How can the sites check people’s ages?
AI can check a live video or photo of the person
Upload a picture of your ID (driver’s license)
Allow the site to check their billing information for their phone or credit card
Companies that breach the new rules will be fined up to 16 million pounds or 10% of a company’s global revenue … This means that if Facebook breached the new rules, they could pay a fine of $16 billion.
Would you like Japan to implement the same rules?
Sources:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/12/australia/australia-social-media-kids-intl-hnk-dst
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jul/24/what-are-the-new-uk-online-safety-rules-and-how-will-they-be-enforced