海角大神

What鈥檚 behind the global push to ban social media for kids

Jimmy Kakanis surprised his Australian classroom with an unusual pop quiz. He posed a single yes-or-no question to his teenage students: Are you still using social media?

In December, the Australian Parliament banned popular apps such as TikTok, X, and Instagram from hosting users under the age of 16. It was the first such law in the world. Legislative bodies in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas are now actively pursuing similar action.

But in the shire town of Murwillumbah, just a kangaroo hop from the Gold Coast on Australia鈥檚 eastern edge, Mr. Kakanis鈥� students had shrugged off the social media ban. Only three teens out of 25 had any of their accounts disabled. Two were on Snapchat and the other was on Instagram.

鈥淭he rest had found workarounds,鈥� says Mr. Kakanis, a proponent of the ban, via email. 鈥淭he students who had their accounts disabled waited a while, then made new accounts with ease.鈥�

News reports suggest that this particular group of 14- and 15-year-olds are hardly the only ones to rebel.

Even so, Australia鈥檚 social media ban kicked off a domino effect, starting a widening regulatory push to restrict social media access for minors.

Polls show broad support from parents. Jonathan Haidt鈥檚 2024 bestseller 鈥淭he Anxious Generation,鈥� which has been translated into 44 languages, has convinced many readers that social media is 鈥渞ewiring childhood鈥� in harmful ways. Rather than a 鈥減lay-based childhood,鈥� he argues in the book, children have moved to an unregulated and addictive 鈥減hone-based childhood.鈥� Citing a number of international and national studies, he argues that excessive screen time diminishes children鈥檚 imagination, teaches them to expect constant stimulation, and creates harmful social environments, among other ills.

The issue is also showing up in high-profile court cases.

In Los Angeles, a 20-year-old woman sued YouTube and Meta, which owns Instagram. The plaintiff claimed that she became addicted to their feeds as a child and that this was a significant factor with her mental health. On Wednesday, a jury ruled in her favor. In another landmark lawsuit, the state of New Mexico alleged that Meta violated consumer protection laws by misleading users about the safety of its platforms, thereby enabling child exploitation. The state won that case on Tuesday.

For politicians, the bans are a vote-winning proposition. Yet Australia鈥檚 experience reveals that it is difficult to make such measures work in practice. It has also fueled debates over whether a technocratic fix is adequate to address something as complex as the mental health and safety of children.

鈥淕overnments are moving faster probably than they have the evidence to support that age-gating works,鈥� says Ramsha Jahangir, a senior editor at Tech Policy Press, who helped compile a Global Social Media Age Restriction Tracker. It found moving toward regulatory approaches.

A kaleidoscope craze?

The move to blame social media for teens鈥� woes has been widespread, with those like Mr. Haidt positing that online platforms are too dangerous for many kids. He has more recently pointed to Meta鈥檚 internal research, made publicly available through lawsuits, as proof of Instagram鈥檚 deleterious effects on teens.

It was Mr. Haidt鈥檚 book that influenced a powerful politician in Australia to kick-start the country鈥檚 ban on social media for teens.

Critics of 鈥淭he Anxious Generation鈥� argue that, in trying to make the case that social media harms teens, it mistakes correlation for causation. 鈥淭he data wasn鈥檛 that good,鈥� says Will Dobud, co-author of 鈥淜ids These Days: Understanding and Supporting Youth Mental Health.鈥�

鈥淭he way it was presented was pretty cherry picked,鈥� he says.

This isn鈥檛 the first time parents have feared that children were addicted to scrolling on a handheld device. In the early 1800s, a kaleidoscope craze took hold. Adults fretted that children were so entranced looking into the new tubular invention that they were walking into buildings. Later generations feared losing children to comic books and video games. Mr. Dobud says Mr. Haidt鈥檚 book is fueling a moral panic about smartphone apps.

A 2024 report issued by the Washington D.C.-based National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, called for better research to clarify the links between social media and mental health. In its conclusion, the report recommends 鈥渁 judicious approach to protect youth mental health鈥� rather than broad-based bans. It also said that the benefits of social media to teens shouldn鈥檛 be overlooked.

Amanda Third, a children鈥檚 and families expert adviser to YouTube, seconds the idea that the conversation around teenage use of social media should be less fraught and more nuanced.

鈥淭here are risks of harm associated with being online, but what we know is that the most vulnerable young people online are the most vulnerable young people offline,鈥� says Ms. Third, a research fellow in digital social and cultural research at Western Sydney University.

鈥淵ou have to self-regulate鈥�

Whatever their effect, tech platforms have long been required to include protections for minors. In recent months, though, some apps have been making headlines for hosting age-inappropriate content.

Unsealed documents from 2015 reveal that Instagram 鈥撀爓here the minimum age for users is 13 鈥撀爓as aware that 4 million children below that age were using the platform. The tech company鈥檚 CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, admitted that policing age restrictions is difficult, but Meta has pushed back against the claim that its product is deliberately addictive.

Tech companies are also on the defensive on the political front. Indonesia recently implemented a ban similar to Australia鈥檚. Brazil is introducing new age-based internet access laws this month. When Spain鈥檚 Prime Minister Pedro S谩nchez proposed online age-verification laws, he described social media as a realm of addiction, abuse, pornography, manipulation, and violence. 鈥淲e will protect [children] from the digital Wild West,鈥� Mr. S谩nchez said in February.

The French National Assembly overwhelmingly voted in January to ban social media for anyone under age 15. It still needs to pass the Senate. During an AI summit in Mumbai on Feb. 19, French President Emmanuel Macron invited India to 鈥渏oin the club鈥� of nations seeking to protect teens from unfettered access to these online platforms.

Indian journalist Sunny Simran hails Australia鈥檚 law for sounding an alarm. But he also poses the question of whether every moral value needs to be enforced by legislation.

鈥淭here are certain principles in this world where you have to self-regulate,鈥� says Mr. Simran in a Zoom interview.

Mr. Simran believes India鈥檚 phone-tethered parents are failing to model restraint, balance, and responsibility. India鈥檚 family systems have traditionally imparted those virtues. The journalist also worries that Australia鈥檚 laws were passed in haste. Seat belt laws and smoking bans resulted from behavioral change that was a marathon, not a sprint, he says.

Brooke Shannon, founder of Wait Until 8th, a pledge movement based in the United States that advocates delaying smartphone use until the end of 8th grade, is enthusiastic about the international momentum. But she offers a caveat.

鈥淚n terms of effectiveness, age-based guardrails can help reset social norms and provide structural support to families,鈥� Ms. Shannon says in an email. 鈥淗owever ... laws work best when they complement parental oversight, rather than replace it.鈥�

Potential pitfalls

Some see significant downsides to such laws, even if well-intended. When age gates are implemented, everyone who accesses a social media platform has to enter through them.

鈥淭he information that you鈥檙e submitting in order to prove your age 鈥� whether that鈥檚 biometric information or documentation or some type of token that鈥檚 on your device 鈥� is then going to be shared with several layers of intermediaries that collect and process your information,鈥� says David Greene, senior counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 鈥淭hat raises very serious privacy and speech concerns both for young people and for adults.鈥�

Another issue is the use of virtual private networks to fool social media platforms about the location of the user. Some of these new legislative proposals include VPN bans. But VPNs are widely used around the world as online safety tools against hackers and surveillance.

Others see a threat to the freedom of expression that applies as much to children as it does adults. That鈥檚 why John Ruddick, president of the Digital Freedom Project, is helping two teenagers challenge Australia鈥檚 social media ban in court.

鈥淭he law is unconstitutional,鈥� says Mr. Ruddick, who is also a Libertarian member of the New South Wales Parliament. For decades, he says, Australia has had 鈥渁n established implied freedom of political communication. That has been upheld on multiple, multiple High Court matters.鈥�

鈥淲hat do we want for our kids?鈥�

Whatever happens with the law, Australian mental health expert Will Dobud suggests a helpful thought experiment for its proponents: If elves stole all our internet technology tonight, what would parents do tomorrow? They need to learn how to have conversations with their children. And they can start with a rule of 鈥渘o phones鈥� at the dinner table.

鈥淏ut there had better be some good dialogue,鈥� says Mr. Dobud. 鈥淥therwise, 鈥榥o phones鈥� is going to be equated to boredom.鈥�

Ms. Third, the adviser to YouTube, says that a better approach would be to pressure technology companies to redesign their platforms to mitigate potential harms.

To that end, she says that she would like to see officials from the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations working together, perhaps in alliance with the Global Online Safety Regulators Network.

鈥淲e need to identify those harmful features. We need to identify the aspirations, right? What do we want for our kids?鈥� says Ms. Third. 鈥淎nd then around that, we need to design some international standards that can be legislated in different jurisdictions.鈥�