Unpicking the teen social media shakeup that started this week in Australia
As Australia enlarges its list of banned platforms for under-16s to include Twitch, the world is watching to see what kids do next, and if the internet really is safer without social media
Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, the watchdog in charge of the country’s looming teen social media ban, released a stat earlier this year: 96% of 10-15 year olds in Australia use social media.
December 10th is the big day in Australia then if you’re a 15 year old. You’re about to have a huge part of your life taken away - your entertainment, your social circle, and now, your ability to endlessly watch others playing video games. And yesterday the eSafety Commissioner enlarged the list of social networks due to be banned for under-16s by adding the Amazon-owned live streaming service, Twitch.
The full list of social networks about to be banned for under-16s in Australia:
Instagram
TikTok
Facebook
Snapchat
X
Reddit
Roblox
Threads
Kick
Twitch
And YouTube will be limited to viewing only for under-16s.
So how will this ban work, and will it work? When will it be enforced and how will users respond?
Meta starts its teen freeze
Well, teens woke up this week to a shock as Meta began sending early warnings that Instagram, Facebook and Threads accounts belonging to under sixteen year olds will disappear.
The move has arrived ahead of schedule, and there’s nothing quite like an early deadline to cue panic in a teen social media user. As Australia becomes the first nation to enforce such sweeping age limits on major social platforms, and with many other countries including the EU regulators considering similar policies, the world is watching closely to see not only how Australia’s regulators and Meta handle this transition, and how teens respond in the crucial days ahead.
I have actually spent a fair chunk of my time this year, as part of my work for nonprofit, Raise, working closely with under-16s to understand how they use social media and what a ban would mean to them. I took part in focus groups, visited schools, carried out surveys, and I heard some surprising things, even to me as a social media researcher and as a parent.
This insight matters now more than ever, as it helps anticipate how young users might react when some of their social media suddenly disappears, and it shows what could genuinely keep them safe online beyond simple age limits. There are important questions still unanswered as this major shift unfolds under the intense gaze of governments, parents, educators and platforms around the world.
Timings of the teen bans will vary: In the latest addition to the list, Twitch said it will deactivate the accounts of under-16s on January 9th. Meta was last week already telling users that their accounts will be frozen if they are under-16 and that this could happen ahead of the December 10 deadline.
But so many services will still be at an under-16s disposal. Users have been told in messages from Meta that they are able to download their data, use WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger in the meantime, and also curiously confirm if they actually might be over 16 and thus continue using social media.
(How) will kids still use social media anyway?
Which brings me on to what kids say they will do if and when social media is limited for them. In my focus group work and surveys we ran at Raise, respondents told us the ways they would continue to use social media if they wanted to.
Firstly, they said they would just mark their age as over-16, as choosing one’s age is a common method of starting off using a smartphone for a child. Other ways included using a VPN to bypass Australian age limits by accessing from another country, using an adult’s phone as a burner phone, gaining parental permission, or simply using other social networks and apps that aren’t going to be banned, which includes messaging apps, which are used essentially like social media, and AI apps and systems from ChatGPT to Meta AI.
Kids are digital escape artists
What will be interesting to see here also is how inventive teen social media users may get with their online communities. Will they replicate their communities and social content sharing in Messenger, WhatsApp or Discord? Might Meta or another app platform innovate and create new safe spaces for teens online? Or might we find that this becomes a game of whack-a-mole and users spend more time on other types of apps altogether: we found in our research that the use of AI amongst under-16s could be considered even more prolific, time consuming and influential than social media.
A potentially problematic area for the implementation of a teen social media ban is its enforcement, with the responsibility being passed on to the social networks themselves. With the Australian government not having passed a standard practice, some social networks may escape sanctions by paying lip service, and undermining the point of the change altogether. Monitoring, feedback and communicating what’s next will be important not only for Australia but for the many other countries considering a similar move.
It will be vital to see, in the playing out of all teen online protection plans, whether the absence of social media even does anything positive in protecting users when there are so many digital options available to a teenager. One could argue that the time and attention would be better spent actually making social media safer, through functionality, algorithm changes, content bans and education.
Rerouting of digital habits, or more time offline?
What comes next will be the real measure of progress. Australia has taken a bold step, but the outcome depends entirely on how young people adapt. If teens simply reroute their habits, and just find a way to do what they like to do, or perhaps just migrate to private channels or unregulated apps, then the protective intent of the ban may be lost.
If instead this moment sparks a wider effort to build safer, smarter digital spaces, then something meaningful can emerge from the disruption.
I believe that genuine protection cannot come from removal alone. It comes from understanding how teens live online, supporting them with the right tools and education, and ensuring the platforms they use are designed with their wellbeing in mind. Australia has opened a global conversation, and now it is up to all of us to shape what happens next.