Australia’s Social Media Ban: My Thoughts

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese speaks about the proposed social media ban. Image taken from Reuters.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock recently, there’s a good chance you’ve heard that Australia has passed a law that would ban people under 16 from using social media. I understand that it’s not my country, so I don’t have too much skin in the game. Still, what happens in one country doesn’t always stay there.

Whenever I’ve seen discourse about this ban online, one of the biggest talking points I’ve noticed is that it would be impossible to enforce this ban. But I’m not sure that’s true.

After all, I spend a lot of time on the social media platform known as Discord. In fact, probably too much time. Discord has a hard and fast requirement that all users be at least 13 years of age. If you admit to being under that age, you’ll be swiftly banned from all your servers and probably reported to Trust and Safety. And from what I’ve read, the Australian law puts the onus on the platforms to regulate themselves.

First of all, let’s look at the facts. The ban applies to five sites: Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Xitter. And yes, I call Elon Musk’s platform Xitter, pronounced “shitter.” Because ultimately, that’s what it is these days. 

In any case, only sites for which one requires an account to use will be affected. Websites like YouTube, which you can browse as a guest, are, according to the BBC, “unlikely to be banned.” And there’s a reason I cite the BBC here, because the United Kingdom is considering its own ban under terms similar to those used in Australia. Given that the UK and Australia are relatively influential countries on the world stage, it is at least conceivable that more countries will follow suit eventually.

Overall, I have mixed feelings about this sort of legislation. In all probability, it will never come to fruition in the United States, because the Democrats and Republicans aren’t likely to agree on anything so significant anytime soon. But that doesn’t mean I can’t have an opinion on it.

It has been well-documented that social media can have a negative impact on a person’s mental health. So much so, in fact, that the European Disability Forum felt the need to write an article about how young people should take care of their health in the digital world. I can certainly relate to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) whenever I see people on social media bragging about their epic vacations.

Let’s use TikTok as another example. Prior to Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter, I would argue that it was the most harmful out of these five social media platforms that Australia is looking to restrict. For now, let’s leave aside the misinformation that’s sometimes spread there, such as trivializing autism. And yes, autism can be good sometimes, but still!

Have you ever noticed that the younger generation’s attention spans seem to be getting shorter and shorter in recent years? Anecdotally, there are many schoolteachers on Reddit who say that the children don’t learn as well as they used to. And yes, Reddit may not be real life, but I think there’s evidence to bear this out. Internet addiction is very much a real thing, and I think it both comes from and contributes to the societal need for constant stimulation. The short, to-the-point TikTok videos that are 60 seconds or less really feed into that, meaning that so many of us are just used to putting in no effort.

I’m 24 years old. I feel myself addicted to Discord much of the time, but I didn’t start using Discord (I’m making it sound like a drug, because it kind of is) until I was 16. If I’d started at fourteen or even thirteen, I might be even more addicted to the platform. After all, there’s plenty of evidence, including common sense, suggesting that it’s harder to break a habit you start at an early age.

As bad as its impact on the attention span is, social media’s impact on mental health through activities such as doomscrolling is even worse. Now, there’s a lot of wrong going on in this world; all you need to do is read one of my “Anti-America’s Top Ten Countdown” posts to know that. But as privileged as it might make me seem, I think I would be in a much better mood if I wasn’t on Reddit all damn day.

Moreover, social media is probably one reason I compare myself to others so much. It isn’t remotely healthy to do so, because you’ll either feel smug or incomplete, but it still happens. Even some of the things I’ve done in real life, as fun as they were, are things I chose to do because others on Discord said they were amazing.

That being said, I can also see an argument for not banning social media for those under 16. If we view social media as a drug like alcohol, I would argue that the U.S.’ policy surrounding the drinking age isn’t the healthiest. Here, you’re flat-out banned from drinking until you’re 21. Now, alcohol isn’t good for a still-developing brain at all, but in practice lots of people go all-out drinking on their 21st birthday.

By contrast, most of Europe has a far more nuanced approach to the drinking age, and I think it’s better. There, teenagers are taught to have a healthy respect for alcohol before they’re allowed to drink it whenever. And maybe social media is a lot like that. Maybe instead of banning these platforms for minors, we should have more media literacy lessons in schools so that the students know the potential downsides of social media.

This isn’t entirely a novel idea. For instance, Finland has a implemented media literacy curriculum for students in basic education. While I’m not privy to the specifics of what is covered (in fact, I’ve never been to Finland even as a tourist), I would imagine it discusses the perils of unchecked social media use. After all, as has been covered extensively, the barrier to posting a story that might be considered “news” is far lower than it once was.

Much like the Internet as a whole, social media is a proverbial Pandora’s Box that we aren’t going to be able to close. We’ll never be able to return to a world without it. Australia is trying one approach to dealing with this problem; the UK might follow suit. Meanwhile, Finland is evidently trying another. And the United States will probably do nothing, just like we did nothing after the horrific tragedy that occurred twelve years ago today. 

I’m curious to hear your thoughts.