# Australian under 16 Teen social media ban **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 9, 2025, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563 "2025-12-09T17:56:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/41 "2025-12-10T00:02:17Z")
You can give your kids access to Minecraft without giving them access to public multiplayer servers where they might run into a pedo. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/42 "2025-12-10T00:14:21Z")
I’m not sure how I feel about the subject of the OP but this (IMHO) is clear; if there’s a platform where it’s possible to interact with children then there will be people who will try to use that platform to groom those children, sexually and otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/43 "2025-12-10T00:36:49Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And I know some youngsters in Australia and not a single one is in favor of this law. Of course since they can’t vote, the government doesn’t care about their opinion. Thus why kids are picked as a target; they aren’t _allowed_ to fight back. It makes them a great target for control freaks and bullies in positions of authority. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/44 "2025-12-10T00:46:54Z")
Well, maybe I don’t really know what the game is about(I know it’s a building/fighting type thing) but any online play where they interact with others online might be a danger. (Heck, live Lego cause out and out wars just between these kids) I’m assuming there’s parental blockers you can install. (Not that any kid over 10 can’t figure out how to go around that easily). Yeah, I’m a fretter. My daughter and her ex will decide, not me. Which is very fine with me. I’ve done my kid raisin’. No worries. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/45 "2025-12-13T16:23:19Z")
What always gets me is people complaining about kids not socializing enough any more. Kids today are socializing more than any other generation in history. If there’s a problem, it’s that they’re socializing too much. Social media is social. That’s why it’s called that, and why it’s so alluring, because humans like socialization. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/46 "2025-12-13T21:22:12Z")
If you take away social media, then you have to replace it with something. There have to be public spaces they can gather safely, and with activities available for them to occupy themselves. Those tend to be not looked after by councils or communities, or were hidden in dark corners of town, so soon are abandoned and get shut down. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/47 "2025-12-13T21:36:35Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > If you take away social media, then you have to replace it with something. Not really, that reduces control. Making sure that kids have as little contact with the outside world as possible makes it easier to indoctrinate them. And keeping them friendless leaves them socially starved and with fewer options for help. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2025, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/48 "2025-12-13T21:52:27Z")
Sometimes freedom conflicts with worthy goals. I’m afraid I usually come down on the side of freedom. I know kids don’t have many rights, but I think they should. A 13, 14 or 15 year old should be allowed to make mistakes. Younger than that, and parents do actually have a say.(so the government should stay out of it) ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/49 "2025-12-14T01:48:34Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Do you have any idea what Minecraft is? Think of it as an infinite Lego set. I’m not sure why you think that one is a problem – as far as video games go, it’s about as good as it gets. My son is getting Minecraft secretly installed on his tablet for Christmas. He loves watching it on YouTube and he has a Minecraft water bottle but he’s never gotten to play the actual game before. He is going to go _nuts_. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/50 "2025-12-14T05:52:24Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I don’t live in Australia, so I personally have no dog in this fight, I assume no Dingo either? ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/51 "2025-12-14T07:50:06Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > And I know some youngsters in Australia and not a single one is in favor of this law. Wowsers. Does that make you some sort of unimpeachable authority? I know a metric shedload more of them, being a local, and none have expressed angst to me. Seems to me it’s going swimmingly well. The US MAGA Tech Bros have collectively folded like a cheap suit. PM Albo ain’t losing his job over this initiative. [Australia’s social media ban launched with barely a hitch](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/12/australia-teen-social-media-ban-launch-test-to-come) > [@](#): > > Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube, Snapchat, Kick, Reddit and Twitch were the [first 10 platforms](https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/dec/09/australia-under-16-social-media-ban-begins-apps-listed) to be asked to comply with the ban. Others have adopted similar measures or are planning to, including Bluesky. > > The tech companies were opposed from the outset – YouTube threatened a lawsuit, while Elon Musk’s X did not confirm its participation until the day the ban came into effect. But by Wednesday they all said they were complying. Perhaps they recall the brouhaha stirred up by Big Tobacco over the Australian plain packaging laws claimed were impinging on their trade marks and intellectual property and consequently trade-restrictive. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, nope. Now maybe, after due time and evaluation of the local implications the settings might be amended … either looser or tighter. But that’s our prerogative, not yours. > [@](#): > > But it should be up to every parent to decide what is good for their kid. Whither the argument of the anti-vaxxers, no? Me, I trust the science. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/52 "2025-12-14T15:59:19Z")
I will remind people that snark and anger are not generally convincing to me. I find that they are primarily used as tactics when the logic is either not present or insufficient. This is government censorship of media. It’s not any better than book bannings. Trying to link it to activities like smoking is ridiculous. Those are not press or speech. There is no freedom of smoking. Smoking is also something that is inherently and always harmful. Social media is not. It has so many legitimate uses. That unrestricted use statistically leads to problems doesn’t mean that all uses for all individuals is dangerous. It is exactly the sort of situation where the danger varies based on the individual. It’s exactly the wrong sort of thing to have a rigid ban on. And because of both of these things, this is far more analogous to the parents having books removed from the library. Rather than managing their own kids, they need to limit what every other kid (and every other parent) can do. I mean, come on. This is freedom of speech here. It’s the sort of thing we attacked authoritarian China for. This is an authoritarianism. As for my claim about children: that was because someone was ridiculously claiming that children support having their freedoms removed. Finally, if you check out which sites are affected, it’s basically random. YouTube is on there. That’s primarily a video site. Twitch is there which is a live streaming service. X is on there, but Bluesky is explicitly not. Roblox, which has actual child molesters on it and refuses to do anything about it–it is explicitly allowed. This is not remotely about following the science. Not that that would excuse it. Again, this is government censorship of media. That’s never okay. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/53 "2025-12-14T16:22:31Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > That unrestricted use statistically leads to problems doesn’t mean that all uses for all individuals is dangerous. That’s also true of smoking. I would argue that smoking confers a lot of social benefits, too (that is, it did confer those benefits when it was common.) ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2025, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/54 "2025-12-14T21:48:23Z")
My dear old bean. Such a wonderful display of faux effrontery. Free speech is now the equivalent of access to Minecraft? How on earth did generations past survive? This isn’t government censoring of free speech. This is more the equivalent to sanctioning toy companies when faulty products represent a choking hazard. It’s crimping the anti-social aspects of the unregulated platforms of a handful of uber-wealthy US Tech Bros whose commercial imperative is to get a viable return on the squillions they are spending on AI. Consequently, the necessity for ongoing and unedifying supplication of them kissing up & paying up to the corrupt authoritarian regime running the USA. Little old Oz doesn’t have any statutory right to free speech or owning a firearm or not having the military doss up in our residences. The country, like others similarly bereft is no less welcoming for it’s citizens life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. We do have the right for self-determination, alas even if that encroaches on your hegemonic tendencies. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/55 "2025-12-15T01:18:07Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > How on earth did generations past survive? Quite often, they didn’t. Rendering people incommunicado is a useful tool for oppression. They’re just starting with kids because kids are an easy target for the opening wedge. But censorship “for the children” seldom if ever remains restricted to them. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/56 "2025-12-15T03:11:06Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > They’re just starting with kids because kids are an easy target for the opening wedge. You have the ox cart before the oxen. It’s the US Tech Bros platforms that target the kids. And it’s not Albo’s administration that are wanting 5 years personal social media history to assess for deviance (which those very same US Tech Bros will deliver with a neat bow to pay for a regulatory tick on their next corporate acquisition) so as to ensure US border security integrity. So it’s not my freedom of speech that tugs at your libertarian heart strings. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/57 "2025-12-15T04:28:47Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > You have the ox cart before the oxen. > It’s the US Tech Bros platforms that target the kids. You assume that this is _about_ “US tech bros”, and not control freaks clamping down on kids because they can’t fight back. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/58 "2025-12-15T10:33:43Z")
The US administration wants our primary school age kids to have unfettered access to US based social media so they can assess their online history for subversive tendencies when they try to visit Disneyland? … and we’re the control freaks? ---
**Author:** ![scudsucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scudsucker/32/14101_2.png) [@scudsucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scudsucker)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/59 "2025-12-15T11:41:03Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Frankly, social media accounts _should_ be tied to something like a driver’s license So… I have worked on Facebook as a gambling/slot machine game developer. They require photo ID to develop games, particularly that type. But I did not want to have a FB account (I had one in the name of my dog, but he was into fun walks, not online gambling) and I did not want to flood my real friends with the high amounts of spam that these games sent to my “friends”. But I did have to create various features involving sharing with “friends”. I simply photoshoped various versions of my own ID, and created multiple accounts who were in a tight “friend” group with no external “friends”. Technically, I guess this was fraud, but I am somewhat far away from US jurisdiction. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2025, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563/60 "2025-12-15T13:09:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > This is government censorship of media. It’s not any better than book bannings. We are _all_ fine with government censorship of media in some contexts. In this context, the problem is the medium, not the message; and it’s an _incredibly_ toxic medium, with study after study demonstrating the harmful effects on children. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/australian-under-16-teen-social-media-ban/1025563.md?page=4)