Since Frances Haugen, a whistleblower from Meta (META.O), revealed internal emails in 2021 showing that the tech giant was aware of social media’s mental health impacts on teenagers, world leaders have struggled to find ways to mitigate the technology’s addictive influence on young minds. A 2023 recommendation by the U.S. surgeon general suggested placing health warnings on social media platforms, attributing the so-called teenage mental health crisis to them. However, lawmakers from Florida to France have faced pushback on grounds of free speech, privacy, and the limitations of age-verification technology.
The turning point in this deadlock came when the wife of the leader of Australia’s second-smallest state read “The Anxious Generation,” a 2024 bestseller criticizing social media by U.S. social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and encouraged her husband to take action. “I remember the moment she said to me, ‘You’ve got to read this book and you’ve got to do something about it,'” South Australia Premier Peter Malinauskas told reporters in Adelaide, a day after the federal parliament passed a nationwide social media ban for youths under 16. “I didn’t expect it to gain momentum so quickly,” he added.
Malinauskas’s personal drive to limit youth access to social media in his state—which accounts for just 7% of Australia’s 27 million population—resulted in the world’s first national ban in just six months. This rapid progress highlights the significant concern among the Australian electorate regarding this issue. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to hold an election in early 2025. A YouGov survey conducted by the Australian government found that 77% of Australians supported the under-16 social media ban, an increase from 61% in August prior to the official announcement. Only 23% opposed the measure.
“It all originated here,” said Rodrigo Praino, a professor of politics and public policy at Flinders University in South Australia. “The federal government, including the prime minister, immediately recognized that this was a problem that needed to be addressed—and that it was best handled on a national scale. Allowing kids to use social media indiscriminately has become a global issue.” When the father of four heeded his wife’s call in May, Meta had announced two months prior that it would stop paying content royalties to news outlets worldwide, potentially triggering a new Australian online copyright law.
This decision partly prompted the federal government to launch a broad inquiry into the societal impacts of social media, including issues like age-verification technology and the fallout from Meta’s cancellation of royalties. Meanwhile, opposition lawmakers began advocating for age restrictions on social media amidst a legal clash between X and Australia’s e-Safety regulator over the spread of false and graphic content following two public knife attacks in Sydney in April.
In May, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, the largest newspaper publisher in Australia, initiated an editorial campaign to ban children under 16 from social media, titled “Let Them Be Kids.” Throughout mid-2024, News Corp publications and the parliamentary inquiry featured emotional accounts from parents whose children had suffered or lost their lives due to bullying and body image issues linked to social media.
Following Malinauskas’s announcement of a state policy banning social media access for those under 14 in September, Albanese quickly stated that his government would enact a federal equivalent by the end of the year. “Parents want their kids off their phones and on the footy field,” said Albanese, who shares the same center-left Labor party affiliation as Malinauskas. “So do I.”
The proposed South Australian ban was largely consistent with restrictions already enacted in countries such as France and U.S. states like Florida, which allow teenagers over 14 to continue using social media with parental permission. The federal model introduced by Albanese’s government in November did not include parental discretion, under the rationale that it relieved parents of the burden of policing their children’s activities online. The law faced strong criticism from social media companies, which argued it placed full responsibility—and the threat of A$49.5 million in fines—on them without clear guidelines on how it would be implemented. A trial of age-verification technology is set to begin next year.
The left-leaning Greens opposed the law, labeling it rushed and unfair to young people, while some far-right lawmakers diverged from their party’s support, voicing concerns about government overreach and potential surveillance. Nevertheless, with strong backing from the government and most of the opposition, the law was passed just after 11 PM on the last parliamentary day of the year, set to take effect one year later. “I’m pleased to see that it’s come this far in Australia,” said Robert French, a former High Court judge commissioned by Malinauskas in May to assess whether a state-based age restriction would be feasible. Some of French’s recommendations included making the ban national and implementing other necessary measures.