Tweens below: Life without social media in Australia

Starting in December 10, many Australian adolescents will not be online like their peers in other countries. The age bill on the social media, which was approved in 2024, stipulates that the person must be at least 16 years old to obtain an account on platforms such as Instagramand Tikhakand SnapchatAnd YouTube.

Throughout the world, young and old people are increasingly aware of the negative effects Social media He has teenagers. Almost half of the teenagers in the United States are calling these platforms Harm people of their age; Parents are more worried. While many American countries have it Legislation To protect children online, it looks a distant national embargo.

On the contrary, Australia tracked its ban: Annabel West, a lawyer and mother in Adelaide, read the book Jonathan Hedet Anxiety generationAnd she told her husband – Prime Minister in Australia, Peter Malenuskas – that he had to do something. He suggested legislation in his small mandate, and gained support quickly throughout the country. A few months later, a social media ban was signed to become a law, which made Australia the first country in the world to take this step.

Prime Minister Anthony Albaniz said to Australian broadcasting company Last fall after the proposal of the national ban. “so do i.”

The legislation witnessed the resounding support between Australian parents and legislators. He passed in Parliament with an overwhelming majority of the two parties; 77 percent Australians support the ban. Perhaps not surprising, it is less popular with technology companies – that may face fines if they cannot keep children away from their platforms – and with adolescents themselves.

“Initially it looked like a good idea, but with the passage of time, it became more and more against it,” says Elena Metravska, 18, who lives in Melbourne. “I think, frankly, it removes spaces for communication and society.”

More than most teenagers, Mitrevska has an opinion on how the provisions of the Social Media Law on real life are formed. She is an ESAFER Youth Council, a group of 17 Australians, between the ages of 13 and 24, which recommends the country’s safety office, which will implement the new legislation when it comes into effect in December. They have not voted on the bill, but they now have inputs on how he yearned. (Mitrevska and other adolescents in this article express their own opinions, not the views of the Safety Youth Council or the Commissioner.)

Like other members of the Council, MITREVSKA believes that social media can be harmful to young people, especially with regard to addiction design and common graphic materials in societies over the Internet. But she is concerned about not reaching the root of the problem. “It seems that it is really deceptive for me to remove full spaces on the Internet for young people, in exchange for only speaking and trying to fix these specific problems,” she says. “It seems to be an attempt to bury the heads of youth in the sand.”

Australian organizers do not agree. They believe that the embargo will give adults the opportunity to teach children some of the Internet literacy individually before they are completely indulged on social media. The goal is to improve mental health results while placing responsibility for technology companies to verify the ages of their users.

“We realize that delaying the arrival of children to social media accounts will not be resolved, but it will make some friction in a system that had nothing previously,” Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant WIRED told email. She emphasized that she is designed to allow parents to set the basic rules, “giving them a precious time to help their children develop flexibility, cash thinking and the digital literacy they need.”