As of December 10, 2025, Australia has banned social media for young people under 16 years old. Social media platforms will face penalties of up to $50 million if they do not take “reasonable steps” to prevent children and teenagers under 16 from holding a social media account. These accounts include: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitch, X (formerly Twitter) and YouTube. The law requires these platforms to implement age verification methods, such as facial estimation through selfies, uploaded ID documents, or linked bank details. The ban has already led to the removal of about 5 million accounts belonging to Australian teenagers.
According to ABC news, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese encouraged kids to “make the most of school holidays coming up, rather than spending it scrolling on your phone. Start a new sport, learn a new instrument or read that book that’s been sitting there on your shelf for some time,” he said. “Importantly, spend quality time with your friends and your family, face to face.”
As other nations monitor the implementation of the ban, factions with the United States are encouraging our government to do the same. Although even the thought of this ban will send chills of horror through the average middle schooler, would a social media ban benefit our young people, our families, and our communities?
Let’s first take a look at the arguments in favor of a social media ban. Although young people under 16 spend time on a many different platforms, Snapchat, TikTok, X, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram consume the vast majority of screen time. A startling fact on Nexus Teen Academy highlighted, “In 2025, the average person spends nearly 5 hours daily on their phone. That is nearly 1,700 hours a year, or almost three full months lost to scrolling…” The addiction is even worse among teens with the average 13-17 year old staring at their phone for 7-8 hours each day! These numbers continue to grow each year with no end in sight. So, what exactly are these impressionable minds actually consuming so much of?
Although young people naively look at social media as entertainment, the subconscious draw is for social media to help them create an identity. Much of the language that young people use, the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the liquids they consume and the attitude they cop come from social media influencers and/or local school mates who are active on these platforms. Although some of this is harmless, many of these messengers tell kids that if they do not look a certain way, wear certain clothes, drink this drink, or talk like a gangster that they have no place in the world.
The fashion sense generally floats somewhere between street walker and Abercrombie, objectifying our kids even before they hit middle school. Young girls learn quickly that their value either comes from attracting the opposite sex with their bodies or to gain attention by wearing sloppy clothes and donning unattractive haircuts/piercings/make-up. Challenges with body image can lead to anxiety, depression, over-eating, anorexia, or the taking of unhealthy supplements or steroids. Instead of learning that we are all different, made in the image and likeness of God, young people are told that there are only a handful of perfect body shapes; you can either strive to look like those or get out of the way.
Social media is also a way for the insecure ‘popular’ kids to build themselves up by posting their social calendar, flexing pics, dating escapades and vacations. These posts are hand picked and often are intentionally misleading or tweaked to leave the best possible impression for the masses. The result for the average insecure teen is increased insecurity. My social life is not that great, I was not invited to that gathering, my body does not look like that, I’m not that happy, and I don’t have a boy / girl friend are unavoidable takeaways from hours of surfing.
And social media is not selling RFKJ’s new inverted food pyramid as there is no money to be made in fruits and vegetables. Instead, monster drinks, fast food, nasty snacks, over-priced fad food, and in some cases chewing tobacco and vaping are bombarding your student hundreds of times per day. What’s even more concerning is that these social media platforms are billion-dollar industries that proactively build algorithms to encourage young minds to run deeper down addictive social media rabbit holes to increase their users and sell more of their advertisers’ products.
What kids are NOT doing as they doom scroll is the real tragedy. People are built for human interaction, and no amount of technological advancement will ever change that. One need not look all that far back in time to see what life used to be like before phone. Spontaneous conversations that happened while the child was sitting at the kitchen table having a snack or doing homework; car rides that provided quiet time for thinking and reflecting or in-depth discussions of weighty issues; lazy afternoons in the backyard or shooting hoops in the driveway; family gatherings where everyone was engaged and present to everyone else; practicing an instrument, or reading a book, or sitting with God, or fixing an old car, or building Legos. As a result, our kids are struggling mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.
As for the cons of banning social media to kids under 16? There are none. More importantly, knowing the damage this industry is wreaking on our kids, perhaps we parents need to step up and set the example by deleting all our social media accounts. If social media is harming our kids, is it harming us as well?