Australia's Social Media Ban for Children Has Had Little Effect

But ... it's for the children:

Australia’s social media ban for under 16s has had little impact on teenagers’ scrolling habits, researchers said Thursday in one of the first evaluations of the world-leading measures.

Australia in December banned under 16s from the likes of Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, in a crackdown designed to protect children from online bullying and “predatory algorithms”.

But there is little evidence to suggest teenagers have turned away from social media as a consequence, a team of Australia-based researchers found in a peer-reviewed study published by the British Medical Journal.

Underage users have been dodging the restrictions by using accounts registered to older people, setting up fake accounts, or by logging into private browsers.

“We found insufficient evidence to conclude that exposure to the Act had any early substantial effects on social media use among adolescents aged under 16,” the researchers wrote.

There is strong global interest in whether Australia’s laws could provide a blueprint for how to rein in increasingly powerful tech giants.

A growing mass of nations have either introduced or are mulling similar bans — including the United Kingdom, Indonesia, the UAE and New Zealand.

The researchers surveyed more than 400 young social media users immediately before the restrictions came into effect, and again three months after.

There was little change for users aged 12-13, a slight decrease for the 14-15 age group, and an increase in use for those aged 16 and older.

“The findings suggest that the period immediately after the introduction of the act was characterised by limited implementation, incomplete compliance, and substantial circumvention of social media restrictions.”

 

It was never about protection.