Turn off, tune out

Australia's social media ban for under-16s is a world-first, with other countries looking to follow suit. But will it protect kids from online harm?

- Josh Taylor

IN LATE 2023, the South Australian premier's wife put down a book she had been reading. It was Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation. "[She] said to me you better bloody do something about this ... and then we got to work," Peter Malinauskas later recalled in an ABC interview.

Haidt, an American social psychologist, prescribed a social media ban for those aged under 16 as the solution to the mental health ills he believes are caused by the platforms. In Australia, he found a willing test subject. Its ban prohibiting under-16s from holding social media accounts began this week, nationwide. It has generated interest around the world as regulators wrestle with the potential dangers of social media.

Malaysia has indicated it is planning to block children under 16 from signing up to social media accounts next year, New Zealand will introduce a similar ban and the Danish government has also made similar proposals.