The cost of Australia’s social media ban

Summary

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Business Daily (BBC World Service)

Episode: The Cost of Australia’s Social Media Ban

Date: December 9, 2025

Host: Ed Butler
Featured Guests: Katie Watson, Lucas Lane, Mark & Tina Harris, Annika Wells, Momu Bayed, Bruce Daisley

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Overview

This episode examines Australia’s pioneering new law banning social media use by children under age 16. The government touts the ban as an overdue intervention to protect young people’s mental health, but it is divisive—praised by parents and regulators, criticized by teens, civil libertarians, content creators, and tech companies. Host Ed Butler explores the practical, legal, and business implications of the ban, and asks whether Australia’s policy could set a precedent for regulation worldwide.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Background and Rationale for the Ban

• Policy Introduction:
  • Australia is the first country to ban social media access for anyone under 16. Major platforms—including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook—must now block younger users.
  • The government says this is necessary after years of tech companies failing to self-police against harms such as anxiety, self-image disorders, and cyberbullying.
• Quote (Annika Wells, Communications Minister, 03:27):

  “You can't out parent an algorithm. This is giving parents another weapon in their arsenal.”

2. Youth Perspective and Pushback

• Teens in Adelaide Voice Concerns:
  • Many see the ban as pointless and believe tech-savvy kids will circumvent it.
  • Fears include loss of a vital channel for communication, self-expression, and learning.
  • Some teens are challenging the ban in court, arguing it infringes on freedom of speech.
• Quote (13-year-old, 04:01):

  “No matter how hard they try, people are always going to find a way around it.”

3. Implementation, Limitations, and Loopholes

• How The Ban Works:
  • Platforms are required to take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16s from creating or maintaining accounts (Margaret, 04:42).
  • Companies face fines up to AU$50 million (~US$33 million) for violations.
  • Enforcement challenges acknowledged: it’s unclear how effective age verification will be, and young people may move rapidly to new, unregulated platforms.
  • Notably, the ban does not cover gaming platforms.
• Margaret, on enforcement (05:39):

  “Many a person has told me... it’s basically a game of whack-a-mole.”

4. Business Impact: Content Creators and Entrepreneurs React

• Mark & Tina Harris (Lala YouTube channel, 1.4M subscribers):
  • Confused and concerned by YouTube being classified as “social media.”
  • Argue their educational content is being unfairly targeted—loss of young viewers could devastate their channel.
  • Point out that requiring account deletion removes parental oversight tools and personalized safeguards.
  • Mark Harris (09:26):

    “In YouTube’s situation, accounts are actually where the protections and safeguards are... The algorithm knows not to send [kids] certain kinds of content.”

• Lucas Lane (16-year-old entrepreneur, Glossy Boys):
  • Describes social media as essential for self-discovery, community, and launching a business.
  • Advocates for working with platforms to regulate content, not ban access entirely.
  • Lucas Lane (08:52):

    “Social media let me find who I was... and let me connect to other people and let me create a business that was inclusive.”

5. Global Context: Are Other Countries Next?

• Comparisons Made:
  • France requires parental consent for social media users under 15; a full ban is under discussion.
  • South Korea bans mobile device use in classrooms.
  • Iceland is considering raising its minimum age for social media to 15.
  • Malaysia may introduce similar laws in 2026.
• Momu Bayed (15:06):

  “It’s on every country’s mind right now... if there are negative effects... regulation comes into play.”

6. Technology and Legal Hurdles

• Implementation Challenges:
  • Reliable age verification is technically difficult; ideas include device-level age-controlled access, facial scanning, or government ID, all of which have privacy and practicality concerns.
  • Legal challenges are underway, focusing on free expression rights.
• Bruce Daisley (15:36):

  “The most effective way... would be to legislate and ensure that platforms baked in age verification... Either the app can scan your face is one of the suggestions, or most young people don’t necessarily have government ID...”

7. Corporate and Social Responsibility

• Regulatory Precedents:
  • The advertising industry and other sectors already face restrictions for child protection; social media may be following suit.
• Holding Executives Accountable:
  • Australia previously threatened local platform execs with legal liability (e.g., following the Christchurch mass shooting), which forced rapid industry compliance.
• Bruce Daisley (17:34):

  “Nothing mobilizes an organization more quickly than thinking that the local boss is going to go to prison.”

8. Will It Work, and Will Others Follow?

• Many Australians (especially parents) support strong measures.
• Critics doubt the practicality and worry about consequences such as kids seeking out riskier, less-regulated spaces, or losing opportunities for positive online engagement and even career development.
• Policy Ripple Effects:
  • These efforts may inspire similar regulation elsewhere, as governments grapple with digital wellbeing and youth safety.
• Bruce Daisley (19:15):

  “I suspect these sort of controls... will prove to be one of those ideas that’s quite contagious.”

• Momu Bayed (19:37):

  “What are the positive effects of the ban? [Other bans] produced reformulations and positive market changes.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Annika Wells, Communications Minister (03:27):

  “You can't out parent an algorithm. This is giving parents another weapon in their arsenal.”

• Teenager in Adelaide (04:01):

  “I think it’s pointless... no matter what, how hard they try, people are always going to find a way around it.”

• Mark Harris, Lala YouTube (09:26):

  “By saying all of these platforms must get rid of these accounts... In YouTube’s situation, accounts are actually where the protections and safeguards are.”

• Lucas Lane, Glossy Boys (08:52, 10:23):

  “Social media let me find who I was... For me, social media has been a big opportunity in expressing myself.”

• Momu Bayed, Veridu (15:06, 18:41):

  “It’s on every country’s mind right now... I definitely sense [global] appetite for change.”

• Bruce Daisley, Former Twitter/YouTube Exec (15:36, 19:15):

  “Having your operating system know your age... would be the most effective way.”

  “These sorts of controls... are quite contagious if people see positive outcomes.”

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Key Timestamps for Segments

• [01:11] Episode introduction, context of Australia’s social media ban
• [02:14] Statement from PM Anthony Albanese
• [03:27] Communications Minister Annika Wells explains government’s rationale
• [04:01] Adelaide teenagers critique the ban
• [04:42] Margaret details how platforms must comply and enforce
• [07:24] Creators/businesses share impact on channels and business
• [08:52] Lucas Lane discusses social media’s role in self-discovery
• [14:21] Global context: how other countries are considering similar moves
• [15:06] Industry and expert perspectives (Momu Bayed, Bruce Daisley)
• [17:34] Legal accountability & policy effectiveness
• [19:15] Policy’s likely ripple effects and lessons from other regulatory efforts

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Conclusion

Australia’s under-16 social media ban is seen as both a bold step in youth safeguarding and a contentious experiment in digital regulation. While government and many parents hail it as overdue, business leaders and young people warn of unintended consequences and challenge its effectiveness. As court battles begin and other nations watch closely, this Australian policy may serve as a test case for digital youth policy worldwide.

Transcript

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[Lucas Lane]

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[Ed Butler]

Hi there, I'm Ed Butler. Welcome to Business Daily on the BBC World Service. This week, Australia is introducing its new social media ban for children under the age of 16, a move that the government says is overdue and necessary for kids mental health. Not everyone agrees social media is a.

[Katie Watson]

Main resource of communication between people, like, especially young people. Not all social media is negative. Like there has been some negative effects. But also you can still learn things from social media like, it's not all bad.

[Ed Butler]

The ban is the first of its kind anywhere, but there could be a whole array of practical and legal wrangles ahead. And content creators, companies who sell products through social media, and tech companies are all braced for the impact the world is watching.

[Momu Bayed]

It's on every country's mind right now. As long as your governments have their citizens in mind, I think this is on their mind.

[Ed Butler]

Getting Australia's youth off social media. That's Business Daily from the BBC.

[Lucas Lane]

Social media is doing harm to our kids and I'm calling time on it. I've spoken to thousands of parents, grandparents, aunties and uncles. They, like me, are worried sick about the safety of our kids online.

[Ed Butler]

That's Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese there.

[Lucas Lane]

And I want Australian parents and families to know that the government has your back.

[Ed Butler]

Announcing plans for his government to introduce a ban on social media for children under the age of 16. And now a year later, that ban is coming into force. Sites like YouTube, TikTok and Facebook are going to be inaccessible to children and teens across the country. The destructive impacts of social media are widely alleged and of course contested by some. But many studies have identified increasing stress, anxiety and depression, rising cases of self harm, eating disorders, as well as the risks of cyberbullying and online grooming. And the government reckons the legislation is needed to enforce protections that the social media companies themselves have consistently failed to deliver. The communications minister, Annika Wells, spoke with the BBC's Australia correspondent, Katie Watson.

[Katie Watson]

They have had 15, 20 years in this space to do that of their own volition now. And the harms that are coming through by independent research demonstrate it's not enough. We feel that they have more of a social responsibility as social media platforms than they have signed up for themselves. So we have made it the law. We stand firm on the side of parents and not on platforms. You can't out parent an algorithm. This is giving parents another weapon in their arsenal.

[Ed Butler]

Well, it's fair to say that many young people are not happy. Here's the thoughts of some 13 and 14 year olds at a college in Adelaide.

[Katie Watson]

I think it's pointless. I think there's so many better things that they could do to keep children safe. And I think no matter what, how hard they try, people are always going to find a way around it. There's better things that they can be doing and because they've just like banned it, everyone's gonna like find ways around it with like America with the TikTok ban, it just came online the next morning.

[Ed Butler]

Teenagers aren't just grumbling. Two have launched a High Court challenge arguing an infringement of children's right to free speech. Meta have already closed accounts of under 16s. There's also questions over how the ban will actually work. Here once again is the BBC's Australia correspondent, Katie Watson.

[Margaret]

There are 10 platforms that have been named as of now. They include, you know, the like of YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok. Now they have to take reasonable steps, that's the word that's used in the legislation to make sure under 16s don't have an account on their platform. So the onus is on the companies. If they're found to not be taking those reasonable steps, they could be fined as much as 50 million Australian dollars. That's about US$33 million or 25 million pounds. But you know, if young people byp it, if they're given a way around it by friends or by family. That's not something that the companies will be penalised for.

[Ed Butler]

Also, the definitions of what a social media platform is, presumably, will it be ever evolving? Because with these eliminated from the market, no doubt others will be trying to step in and allow chat on their platforms.

[Margaret]

Yeah, so there's been huge criticism about this and many a person has told me that they think it's basically a game of whack a mole, effectively, you know, banning the big ones and then people are moving on to other platforms. So will they back? I mean, the point of the legislation is very much about trying to stop this social interaction of creating algorithms, doom scrolling and, you know, targeting young people. The government's made it very clear that they want to improve young people's mental health, they want to give parents peace. One of the big issues is it doesn't involve gaming either, because I think the idea being that if there were no games on those platforms, would kids necessarily be on those gaming platforms? No. Well, that's why it's not a social media ban.

[Ed Butler]

There are legal challenges inevitably going to be brought. There are being brought against it. But is it your sense that this is still broadly a popular measure with Australians at large?

[Margaret]

So I think if you speak to any parent, they'd probably say this is great. I think what it does is it gives them another tool to push back when one of their young teens wants to have a social media account. I think for younger kids, perhaps it might be more successful because they will never have a social media account, perhaps, and none of their friends will. So it kind of stops that wanting to have, have what everybody else has and perhaps might push away the interest. But I mean, there's an awful lot of critics who say, who are concerned that by closing these big platforms, you know, or closing access to the big platforms, people will find other ways, perhaps less protected ways of going online. There needs to be more education, not just for children, but also for parents who are having to navigate this because it feels like there's a massive lack in understanding how teenagers use social media and how important it is for their lives.

[Ed Butler]

Katie Watson so how is business responding to the new measures? Lucas Lane is a remarkable 16 year old entrepreneur. He's the founder of Glossy Boys, a nail varnish company specifically for teenage boys. Tina and Mark Harris, meanwhile, are children's musicians whose Lala YouTube channel, with 1.4 million subscribers, offers educational content. I heard from Mark, first of all, he told me the ban will have a big effect on his company's channel.

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[Ed Butler]

And you see it as an educational platform primarily here.

[Mark Harris]

Education and entertainment.

[Ed Butler]

Let me bring in Lucas Lane. Now you are providing a community to an underrepresented subgroup, which is boys, who perhaps against the male stereotype, like to wear varnish, they like to wear makeup, they like to wear other things. That, I guess is what the social media age has done for a lot of people, isn't it? It's, it's found a niche for people who aren't necessarily part of the traditional mainstream.

[Lucas Lane]

Yeah, social media let me find who I was and it let me, well, let me have a voice with social media. It let me express myself and it let me connect to other people and let me create a business that was inclusive, that was for everyone, that for the people who didn't have. They just wanted to be heard, they wanted to be spoken to. I was able to create something with that because of social media.

[Ed Butler]

Mark and Tina, the bulk of Australians, I think are supportive of the idea of some kind of curb. Don't you see there needing to be something done here?

[Mark Harris]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that if you speak to most parents, they're open to this being discussed and worked together. It feels very rushed. There hasn't been a lot of consultation and consultation with the public, but also consultation with the platforms themselves. But the one thing that is really interesting, and I think this is probably the biggest mistake that government's making, is that by saying that all of these platforms must get rid of the accounts. In YouTube's situation, accounts are actually where the protections and safeguards are. And when an under 16 year old has an account, parents can actually monitor that account. They can, the algorithm knows not to send them certain kinds of content.

[Ed Butler]

Lucas, what do you think? I mean, you, you know, young people, people your age, and there are mental health issues attached on there.

[Lucas Lane]

Yeah, like there's, I would say there's definitely a connection, but there's also, there's so many negative and also positive things to do with social media. And what I feel like the government needs to do is to talk to those actual social media platforms like meta, like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, because they need to do so people don't get harmed, is for them to regulate the content. For them to regulate what's being said and what's being distributed, they need to regulate that. Because of my access to social media, especially at 13, 14 years old, I was able to find myself. I wouldn't have been stuck in the same bubble and I wouldn't of like my school and like my town or city. Like for me it has opened me up and has and I've discovered myself. Like for me, social media has been a big opportunity in expressing myself. And I'll say there are definitely lots of like areas that need improving and that can be negative about social media, but that is the social media platforms thing. That's what they need to do. That's what they need to fix.

[Mark Harris]

Our eldest daughter was 13 when she started her first YouTube channel and she was interested in making videos and filming.

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[Mark Harris]

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[Mark Harris]

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[Ed Butler]

The views there of some business owners affected by the ban. You're listening to Business Daily from the BBC World Service.

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[Ed Butler]

I'm Ed Butler and today we're asking can this ban to stop Australia's young people using social media really work? You might see Australia as a kind of test case when it comes to this type of blanket legislation, but it is far from the only country trying to curb children's screen time. In France, a law was passed in 2023 requiring social media platforms to obtain parental consent for users under the age of 15 and a wider ban is being considered. South Korea has a nationwide ban on the use of mobile phones and other devices in classrooms, and Iceland is also looking to raise the minimum age for social media accounts to 15. So will Australia show the way for these others to follow?

[Momu Bayed]

It's on every country's mind right now. I don't see why social media shouldn't be regulated if there are negative effects occurring from social media to under 16 year olds. So in any industry where there is a negative effect that affects affects societies, regulation comes into play.

[Ed Butler]

That's Momu Bayed, a co founder of Veridu, an Australian ad tech company. I spoke to him alongside Bruce Daisley, himself a former executive at Twitter and YouTube.

[Bruce Daisley]

The most effective way to do this would be to legislate and ensure that platforms baked in age verification. We all use a device individually and so having something where your operating system knows the age you are would be by far the most effective way of running this. The alternative is that there will be a whole ecosystem of organizations that are attempting to verify it and the effectiveness of them is potentially one of the weak points of this legislation. Either the app can scan your face is one of the suggestions, or most young people don't necessarily have government ID that they can load in mo.

[Ed Butler]

They're going to be legal challenges. We know about that. They're coming in against the government whether or not it's even allowed constitutionally to be sort of denying under 16s their right to expression as they would put it in, in the, in the court case. Marketers. I mean, from a corporate perspective, there's a lot of stress here, isn't there?

[Momu Bayed]

In any industry where there is a negative effect that affects societies, regulation comes into play. I say this because the advertising industry is very well regulated, right. If you think about where and what an advertiser can do today, there are already restrictions. So if a CMO is stressing out about whether they could now target under 16 year olds on social media, well, they already have restrictions in other channels. So for example, in out of home advertising where we operate, an alcohol company can't advertise within 150 meters of a school.

[Ed Butler]

Perhaps the social media companies themselves would welcome and say, look, take it out of our hands because we're fed up with being kind of, you know, beaten up by the media if you like, as well as everyone else for being the bad guys. When the terms of reference are so complicated when it comes to regulating. A blanket ban maybe is the simplest.

[Bruce Daisley]

One of the things that proves most effective actually is what Australia led the way with and we've seen in other countries since, which is holding local executives legally, legally and criminally responsible for the conduct of the platforms. And I used to work at one of the big tech platforms during the time, the time of the Christchurch mass shooting in New Zealand. And one of the things that was clear at the time is that a lot of the content of that horrific content was being re uploaded to social media. And Australia in particular said we will hold local executives responsible if this content is not removed. And let me tell you, nothing mobilizes an organization more quickly than thinking that the local boss is going to go.

[Ed Butler]

To prison one way or another. Mo it seems like Australia is a kind of canary in the coal mine here. We're testing out something that could spread around the world using one country as the litmus for it. Do you think that there is at least appetite for change? You sense that democracies, electorates around the world want to see something change?

[Momu Bayed]

I definitely sense it. I think if you just look at how much time and effort and research goes into understanding the effects of social media and the, you know, the negative effects of social media, it's on every country's mind right now. And so I think Malaysia, if I'm correct, correct me if I'm wrong, here. But Malaysia is looking at enacting a similar regulation in 2026. But definitely there's appetite as long as your our governments have their citizens in mind. I think this is, this is on their mind bracelet.

[Bruce Daisley]

Yeah, most definitely. I suspect these sort of controls, these limitations on what people can see, they're often styled as censorship. But if the net effect is generally removing, removing some of the, the most unpleasant aspects of our Internet experience and I suspect they will prove to be one of those ideas that's quite contagious.

[Momu Bayed]

I agree, Bruce. And what are the positive effects of, of the the ban? If we look at what the UK has done with the less, less healthy food ad ban, right, the, the intention was to ban less healthy food and people may or may not have foreseen this, but what we're seeing are companies that have these less healthy foods and now changing their formulations to be more healthy so they can still advertise. So the positive effect on this less healthy food ad ban is there's more healthy food in market, right, Rather than less healthy food in market not being advertised.

[Ed Butler]

Mobu by Ed and Bruce Daisley there. Well, that's it for today's Business Daily. I'm Ed Butler. The producer was Matt Lines. And remember, you can listen to more episodes of this program wherever you get your point. Podcasts.

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