Right: Australia's social media legislation has attracted interest from governments all over the world. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said that the safety of children online is a concern for parents, including himself.
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Should those under 16 be banned from social media?
Arguments in favour of banning those under 16 from social media?
1. Social media platforms present a threat to the mental health of young users
Those seeking to ban young people from social media want to protect them from the adverse psychological effects social media exposure can have. These effects are likely to be particularly harmful for the young.
Many recent studies have noted an increase among young people in the incidence of disorders such as anxiety, depression, and eating disorders. Research has indicated that around 13.6 percent of Australian children aged 4 to11 are experiencing a mental health disorder. It has also been found that children who are struggling are at greater risk of continued problems in adolescence and adulthood including long-term mental illness and poorer outcomes in education and relationships. It is estimated that half of all mental illnesses experienced in adulthood begin before age 14.
The recent National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing revealed that the prevalence of mental disorders in 16- to 24-year-olds rose by 50 percent, from 26 percent in 2007 to 39 percent in 2021. Studies have shown that young people with mental disorders are likely to be substantial users of social media.
Although a direct causal link has not yet been established, a 2020 study showed that people who deactivated their Facebook accounts were less depressed, less anxious, and reported higher levels of happiness and life satisfaction. Another study of 6,595 US adolescents between ages 12 and 15 found that those who spent more than three hours a day on social media had twice the risk of symptoms of depression and anxiety as non-users. It also cites other studies that found reducing social media use led to improvements in mental health. One of the suggested links between mental disorders among children and adolescents and social media use is sleep deprivation. Accessing social media at night can disrupt a child's sleep. One review of the findings of 20 individual studies found that bedtime media usage among children is associated with insufficient sleep duration, poor sleep quality and excessive daytime sleepiness. Children between the ages of 5 and 16 should get between 9 and 11 hours of sleep every night. Getting inadequate sleep can increase their risk for depression and anxiety. It has also been suggested that social media use contributes to damaged self-esteem. The Social Media Victims' Law Center has noted, 'Facebook has been pinpointed as a social networking site that attracts adolescents with lower self-esteem yet worsens the problem as the teens engage in higher levels of social comparison. This can create an even lower, skewed self-image.'
Dr Jill Emanuele, a senior psychologist in the Mood Disorders Center at the Child Mind Institute, has stated, 'Kids view social media through the lens of their own lives. If they're struggling to stay on top of things or suffering from low self-esteem, they're more likely to interpret images of peers having fun as confirmation that they're doing badly compared to their friends.' A group of United States child welfare experts recently wrote to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg urging him to close down Messenger Kids - a messaging app developed for children - saying it was irresponsible to encourage pre-teens to use the platform. It cited evidence of adolescents reporting severe mood changes because of social media use and girls as young as 10 facing body image issues because of the pictures they are bombarded with on platforms such as Facebook-owned Instagram. Use of social media is also believed to be a contributory factor in the increase in eating disorders among children and adolescents. Recent studies indicate more than 1.1 million Australians, including one in five teenage girls, have an eating disorder. Experts warn that online toxic body image content is contributing to the 200 percent increase in cases among 10- to 14-year-olds and a 76 per cent increase among those aged 15-19-year-olds since 2012.
Eating disorders are characterised by altered eating behaviour that damages a person's physical and mental health. They are particularly common among adolescents and young adults, especially girls. Dissatisfaction with body weight or shape is the primary contributing factor among adolescents and young adults. There is evidence associating prolonged media exposure and the development of eating disorders. A study has linked material frequently presented on TikTok to the development of anorexia nervosa and bulimia among young people. This type of content, which often takes the form of "thinspiration" or "fitspiration", can serve as a trigger for those already struggling with eating disorders. "Thinspiration" and "fitspiration" are terms that refer to content intended to inspire individuals toward achieving thinness or fitness. These campaigns can lead to unhealthy body image ideals. Thinspiration particularly focuses on promoting extreme thinness as an aesthetic goal. These promotions can encourage the development of distorted body image ideals in vulnerable children. Professor Tracey Wade of Flinders University has warned, 'Imagery is really a powerful communicator to our brain. It's much more powerful than the spoken word in terms of influencing emotion, which is why it has to be managed so carefully on social media.' Studies have found a significantly higher susceptibility to eating disorder-related behaviours and over-thinking of body weight and shape among girls with Snapchat and Tumblr accounts and boys with Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram accounts. 2. Social media platforms carry content inappropriate for young users
Those seeking to ban young people from social media want to protect them from the adverse effects of exposure to inappropriate material. Through social media children and teenagers can view materials which they lack the maturity, experience and psychological readiness to deal with. This exposure can cause them significant harm.
The Office of Australia's eSafety Commissioner has supplied a description of the types of inappropriate material to which young people can be exposed on social media. This can include sexually explicit material, false or misleading information, violent material, extremist views, or incentives to terrorism, and hateful or offensive material including racism and misogyny.
A high proportion of young people aged 12 to 17 in Australia have encountered inappropriate or hateful content online. 57 percent have seen real violence that was disturbing, 33 percent have seen images or videos promoting terrorism and nearly half of children between the ages of 9 and 16 are regularly exposed to sexual images. Exposure to violent material online presents children with harmful behaviour models, creates confusion, and causes fear and anxiety. Viewing violence feeds a perception that the world is a violent and dangerous place. It increases fear of becoming a victim of violence, with a resultant increase in self-protective behaviours and a mistrust of others. Viewing violence may lead to real life violence. Children exposed to violence at a young age have a higher tendency for violent and aggressive behaviour later in life than children who are
not so exposed. Young children are particularly likely to be harmed by exposure to representational violence. Children under the age of seven or eight find it difficult to distinguish between fantasy and reality. To the young child there is little distinction between what is shown on screen and what occurs or might occur in real life.
Exposure to sexual material online, including pornography, can influence the sexual development of young people, causing confusion and affecting attitudes and behaviours. South Australian researchers Associate Professor Elspeth McInnes and Dr Lesley-Anne Ey have noted increasing reports of children under 10 years of age exhibiting harmful sexual behaviour towards each other. A 2016 report found that child-on-child sexual assaults in New South Wales rose from 44 in 2006 to 80 in 2015, while the number of indecent assaults between children more than doubled from 33 to 73 in the same period. In Victoria, referrals relating to children with problematic sexual behaviour increased from 10-15 in the early 2000s to more than 200 a year in 2016. The increase can be attributed to a range of factors, including sexual abuse and exposure to pornography.
The use of pornography by adolescents is associated with stronger permissive sexual attitudes. There is some evidence that exposure to pornography can increase the likelihood of earlier first-time sexual experience, particularly for those adolescents who consume pornography more frequently. Pornography can influence a young person's expectations about sex, for example what young men expect their partners to do and vice versa. It can shape sexual practices, with studies finding that young people may try performing common sexual acts seen in dominant hetero pornography such as anal intercourse. Adolescent pornography use is associated with stronger beliefs in gender stereotypes, particularly for males. Male adolescents who view pornography frequently are more likely to view women as sex objects and to hold sexist attitudes such as women "leading men on". Pornography may encourage sexual violence and violence against women.
Social media is also concerning because it does not represent a reliable or appropriate information source for children. Henrietta Fore, executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund has warned about the impact on children of a digital environment saturated with harmful information. The popularity of the internet, social media, and visual networks such as Instagram and TikTok among children has exacerbated the risks. The United Kingdom's Commission on Fake News and Critical Literacy in Schools concluded that 'fake news is a serious problem for children and young people, threatening their well-being, [and] trust in journalism and democracy itself'. In navigating the digital world, with their cognitive capacities still in development, children are particularly vulnerable to the risks of mis/disinformation.
The lack of an appropriate filter on social media also allows for children to have access to material that can led to direct physical harm. Clinical researchers from Oxford University's Department of Psychiatry and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust have reviewed the international research evidence regarding the impact of viewing images of self-harm on the internet and in social media. This indicates that viewing such images usually causes harm. This included an increase in self-harm, such as through triggering urges to self-harm, and enabling social connections with others who are self-harming, which can reinforce an individual's personal identity as someone who self-harms. 3. Social media is one of the major digital platforms where cyberbullying occurs
Those seeking to ban young people from social media want to protect them from the adverse effects of cyberbullying. The United States public service site stopbullying.gov states, 'The most common places where cyberbullying occurs are social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Tik Tok, text messaging and messaging apps on mobile or tablet devices and instant messaging, direct messaging, and online chatting over the internet.
Cyberbullying is the use of technology, primarily the Internet and social media, to defame, insult, or intimidate someone.
Cyberbullying can take many forms. New South Wales police includes among the different forms of cyberbullying abusive texts, online posts and emails; imitating others online using fake profile and other methods; spreading rumours and damaging telling lies online; making hurtful comments; making threats or comments designed to intimidate online; repeated unwanted messages; people using a victim's account to send fake posts; people sending photos or videos of their victim to others to embarrass or humiliate them and excluding others online. United States data suggests the most common type of harassment youth encounter online is name-calling. Some 42 percent of teens say they have been called offensive names online or via their cellphone. Additionally, about a third (32 percent) of teens say someone has spread false rumors about them on the internet, while smaller shares have had someone other than a parent constantly ask where they are, who they're with or what they're doing (21 percent) or have been the target of physical threats online (16 percent). A high percentage of Australian children and adolescents have experienced cyberbullying. This high incidence seems entrenched and has increased greatly in a decade. In 2020 the Headspace National Youth Mental Health Survey found one in two Australian young people have experienced some form
of cyberbullying in their lifetime (51 percent). In 2018 the rate was similar at 53 percent. Experiences of cyberbullying remain stable among young women, young men, and for each of the age groups.
The current figure is much higher than it was ten years previously. In 2011 it was reported to the Joint Select Committee on Cyber-Safety that over a 12-month period, between 10 percent and 20 percent of children and young people had been cyberbullied, with 10-15 percent of students experiencing cyberbullying more than once. Current Australian figures replicate the incidence of cyberbullying in the United States where in 2018 a Pew Research Center survey found that 59 percent of teenagers had personally experienced at least one of six types of abusive online behaviours. Cyberbullying can result in significant harm to the children and adolescents who suffer because of it. The Australian Human Rights Commission has stated, 'Cyberbullying, can have serious impacts on individuals, organisations, and communities. Cyberbullying can be detrimental to a person's mental and physical health. Victims can experience significant social isolation and feel unsafe. It can lead to emotional and physical harm, loss of self-esteem, feelings of shame and anxiety, concentration and learning difficulties. Incidents of young people committing suicide have also occurred.'
Cyberbullying may be particularly detrimental to youth because individuals who cyberbully can access their victims more readily. For young people, traditional bullying generally takes place at school, whereas with cyberbullying, the aggression can be perpetrated at any time of the day or any day of the week and without the direct presence of the victim. Children and adolescents who are bullied through electronic means are also less likely to report their abuse or to seek help than victims of traditional bullying. Cyberbullied youth who suffer in silence perceive that they are supported less. The The United Nations has also warned of the threat of online sexual exploitation and abuse of children and adolescents. In its statement regarding Child and Youth Safety Online, it warns, 'It has never been easier for child sex offenders to contact their potential victims, share imagery and encourage others to commit offences. Some 80 percent of children in 25 countries report feeling in danger of sexual abuse or exploitation online.'
A research article published in October 2024 by The Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health stated, 'With the rise of technology, social media consumption by young children has become part of normal life. The ease of fabricating an online persona also means children become accessible by predators, placing them at risk of exploitation including the production of child abuse material, online grooming and child sexual abuse.' Another extremely concerning issue related to cyberbullying is the growing incidence of suicide among Australian young people. The Australian Competition and Commission in its 2019 Inquiry into Preventing and Policing Cybercrime (Cyberbullying) in Australia noted 'There is extensive evidence available from multiple credible sources within Australia and internationally, which demonstrates an increasing number of cyberbullying recipients committing suicide per annum, across all ages.' The Commission also noted that cyberbullying was a major contributory factor in at least three suicides per week among Australian youth.
In a resource released by the Edith Cowan University on May 25, 2023, it was noted 'Messages such as "you should just kill yourself" can be common in cyberbullying.' Cyberbullicide is a new term for a subclass of suicides that was coined by prominent cyberbullying researchers Sameer Hinduja and Justin Patchin in the 2000s. The term describes suicides that are directly or indirectly influenced by online aggression or cyberbullying. Studies have demonstrated that students who are involved in bullying and cyberbullying (both offenders and victims) have a significantly elevated likelihood of experiencing suicidal thoughts, suicide attempts, or completed suicide. 4. Social media can impede the development of real-world social skills and limit academic performance
Those seeking to ban young people from social media want to encourage them o develop real-world social skills and avoid distractions that restrict their academic performance.
There is concern that restricting social engagement largely to online experiences prevents young people developing a valuable set of real-world social skills. Face-to-face contact between young people has been shown to have dramatically reduced. In the United States, a 2022 study by the Pew Research Center found that teenagers' access to smartphones has increased from 73 percent in 2014 to 95 percent at the time of the study. When questioned 35 percent of those surveyed claimed to use at least one of the top five social media platforms 'almost constantly'.
In Australia 97 percent of Australian teens aged 14-17 reportedly using social media. On average, Australian teenagers use four different social media services and spend more than three hours per day on their favored sites. Research from the Australian Institute of Family Studies has found that half of all Australian teens now spend more time, or as much time, online with their friends as seeing them in person. The findings showed 46 percent of 16-year-olds and 36 percent of 14-year-olds spent the same time engaging with friends via Snapchat, video gaming, Instagram or TikTok as seeing them face-to-face. Clinical psychologists have examined the effect that reduced face-to-face interactions has on the social development of young people. Dr Catherine Steiner-Adair, a clinical psychologist and author has stated, 'As a species we are very highly attuned to reading social cues. There's no question kids are missing out on very critical social skills. In a way, texting and online communicating puts everybody in a context where body language, facial expression, and even the smallest kinds of vocal reactions are rendered invisible.'
The limited range of social cues available online is believed to impede young people's social development. Research has shown that children who understand emotional cues in social settings can develop superior social skills and more positive peer relationships. Non-verbal, affective cues are much stronger when it comes to communicating in person rather than digitally. Face-to-face communication (specifically eye contact and pointing) has been shown to be crucial when teaching children about social interaction and the world around them. It has also been suggested that interacting largely online can reduce empathy. Restricted social cues can cause young people to become more callous, anxious, and insecure. There is also evidence to suggest that increased screen time among very young children hinders their language development. The Hanen Centre, a Canadian not-for-profit organization working to promote language, social and literacy skills in young children, has highlighted a 2020 review of 42 studies that found that children who spent more time on screens had lower language skills. Another study of 157 toddlers found that children who spent more time on screens had lower language skills. Similarly, a 2022 study found that children aged 17 - 36 months who spent more time viewing screens had smaller vocabularies.
It has also been claimed that social media use can harm young people's academic performance. A 2023 study conducted by the University of Delaware analysed survey data from 1,459 middle schoolers in the northeast United States and found that their academic achievement decreased as their Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter (now known as X) use increased. He researchers concluded 'Social media likely poses a distraction to early adolescents. Attention that they would typically invest in their schoolwork is diverted to social media use, which ultimately affects their ability to perform well in school. But lower academic achievement may also result from other aspects of development that are affected by social media use. For example, social media use can disrupt healthy family functioning or peer relationships, which can then lower early adolescents' performance in school.'
A 2020 study published in the journal Computers & Education found a 'significant negative correlation between late-night social media use and academic performance'. The researchers suggested that social media notifications and the constant urge to check updates can disrupt study flow and lead to sleep deprivation, ultimately hindering focus and academic achievement. It has also been noted that social media becomes a vehicle through which students can ongoingly compare their performances. This heightens student stress and anxiety. Statistics from a 2023 study by the American Psychological Association reveal a concerning link between social media use and increased stress levels among students. 5. Parents appreciate the government's help in protecting their children from the harms of social media as social media platforms are not doing enough to safeguard young users
Those seeking to ban young people from social media argue that a ban is necessary because parents are unable to give their children adequate protection. They further claim that the various social media platforms have not protected young users and therefore they need regulatory pressure placed upon them by governments.
Many parents have complained that it is extremely difficult to successfully regulate their children's access to social media platforms. Jane Rowan, the chief executive of Eating Disorder Families Australia, has stated, 'Parents are really crying out for some help, we're struggling. It's like trying to stop a tsunami on most days and when you're up against that algorithm . . . it's impossible.'
Bushra Khan, a lecturer in the School of Health and Society at Wollongong University, has warned of the difficulties parents face when they try to monitor their children's social media use. She states, 'It can make teenagers feel that their privacy is being invaded, leading to resentment and secrecy.' Forms of parental control that adolescents see as a restriction on their freedom of expression also increase secrecy. For young people seeking to avoid parental monitoring there are numerous strategies available. Sam Black, marketing manager for a company that sells Internet filters and online trackers, has stated, 'To hide, a child or teen may create alternative names, nicknames (or) secret email addresses, and access social media sites from alternative devices such as phones, gaming devices or even a library computer.' It has been argued that one of the reasons young people resist parents regulating their social media access is that the material is presented to them in ways that prompt addiction. Social psychologist Professor Jonathan Haidt has argued that digital platforms were less harmful in their original formulation; however, he has stated, 'Everything changed beginning in 2009 when Facebook added the like button and later the share button.' Instagram followed in 2010 and likes and shares are now key features of other social media platforms. Professor Haidt claims, 'You have so much engagement data that you can use algorithms to feed stuff to people based on what will engage them.' Technology engineer Aza Raskin, who helped design the infinite scroll feature of social media apps, has noted, 'It's as if they're taking behavioural cocaine and just sprinkling it all over your interface and that's the thing that keeps you coming back and back and back. . . Behind every screen on your phone, there are generally. . . a thousand engineers that have worked on this thing to try to make it maximally addicting.'
Many Australian parents have expressed their gratitude for the Australian social media ban on those under 16. They claim it will help them to protect their children. One Melbourne mother interviewed by an ABC reporter said a ban would give her a more powerful reason to say no when her younger daughter asked her to join social media. She stated, 'It's a blanket rule - it's like my kid wanting to go and get a cigarette, it's not happening. It's black and white and that's what I think, as parents, we are really craving at the moment.'
A freelance writer and mother similarly wrote to The Australian, 'With my oldest having just turned nine, this is one fight I am glad I will never have to have. What a blessing that my kids will be spared this toxic space for a few more precious years...The social media ban for children has restored my faith in our ability to see reason and for common sense to unite us...Finally, a law that prioritises our most vulnerable above profits and political gain.' There is also concern that the social media platform providers are not doing enough to protect young people. This complaint has been made by several former employees of these companies. Arturo Bejar, a former Facebook technician has described his disappointment over his daughter's experience of using Instagram. He stated, 'I really can't imagine a world where, as things stand today, these things are safe for a 13-year-old to use. At that age, you're still developing in so many ways, and you experience the world so intensely. And then you have an environment that really doesn't provide the right safeguards on time spent or what happens when someone makes a comment that makes you uncomfortable, or what happens if you get bullied.' After complaining unsuccessfully to Meta, Bejar concluded, 'Companies like Meta will need to be compelled by regulators and policymakers to be transparent about these harms and what they are doing to address them.'
A former TikTok employee and parent of a four-year-old has similarly stated, 'The foundation of what drives this industry is fundamentally against the safety of our children. When it comes to child safety, it's always an afterthought. It's always after a million mistakes happen and a ton of pressure gets put on you by regulators and parent groups. So, you have to come up with solutions to keep children "safe", but it's never foolproof.'