95bFM Academic: Australia’s U16 social media ban backs digital restriction over digital literacy
5 December, 2025
Interview by Jasmine Gray, adapted by Sara McKoy
The Victoria University of Wellington’s Dr Alex Beattie says the decision to ban social media removes young people’s agency and will negatively impact how they learn to engage with these digital platforms.
From the 10th of December, Australia will officially enforce a social media ban for children under 16 years of age across platforms including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.
The Online Safety Amendment Bill 2024 is a landmark decision relating to the use of social media for young people, which is being challenged in the High Court by two Australian teenagers: Noah Jones and Macy Neyland, and is being backed by the rights organisation Digital Freedom Project.
While the ban is rooted in widespread concerns Australian adults have around digital safety and social media’s impact on the mental health of young people, opponents have argued that the government should improve digital literacy skills over removing young peoples’ access to social media platforms altogether.
Senior Lecturer in Information Management at the Victoria University of Wellington, Dr Alex Beattie, told 95bFM’s The Wire that the government should be focused on digital rights rather than digital prohibition.
“We have to acknowledge that [social] media is a part of young people's lives.
“We should be advocating for more children's rights, protecting them from algorithmic targeting, addictive design, and stripping all those things away from the platforms.
“I think that would be a much longer, sustainable form of regulation than a ban, which is a band-aid solution.”
Beattie says the Australian government fails to consider the needs of rangatahi in a modern context where the digital world is ubiquitous.
He argues that the decision was misguided by an ‘unrealistic’ “pre-digital childhood nostalgia”, which does not reflect the reality for young people and may generate challenges for how they engage with social media platforms in the future.
“They're losing their agency, they're losing their ability to learn how to navigate online and how to navigate these tricky issues.
“If we stop people's ability to do that until they're 17, then are we actually preparing them for navigating the online world? No, we're not.”
Governments in Europe, Asia, and South America have also considered taking measures to limit the impact of social media use on youth.
In Aotearoa, the campaign B416 has also called for similar regulations on social media for rangatahi, citing mental health concerns, with National MP Catherine Wedd putting forward a member’s bill to ban social media access for under-16-year-olds.
Beattie says the “world will be watching” to see if the social media ban does positively impact young people’s mental health.
“There's a lot of genuine concern and goodwill behind the ban, even though I don't agree with it, I agree with people [who] are concerned about young people's mental health.
“So will this actually make a positive impact? I have my doubts, but I guess we'll have to wait and see.”
