I have three kids, 11,14 and 17. They live in an online world. It’s completely different to how it was 15 years ago. My oldest is talking with friends on discord every night while they play games. My middle child scrolls YouTube shorts and chats with friends on messenger. My youngest is on Roblox chatting with friends and strangers using the chat built into various games. As far as I can tell none of them will be affected by the legislation. But I will be if I want to keep using instagram or threads or whatever because I’ll need to prove somehow that I’m over 16 and incidentally lose my anonymity. Have I got that right ?
And add in the fact that misinformation, bullying and lying is only going increase on social media owned by oligarchs sensing a chance to rule the world using Trump as the front.
This was recently published and highlights how the poor quality of research regarding social media. As the article asserts, some games improve cognition and social media doesn't dumb us down.
On the alcohol and drug use: the seemingly global decline in use/abuse by young people is interesting, to say the least.
There is one hypothesis that links to social media use, which is that people are not as bored as they used to be. The plethora of on-demand entertainment options and the various attractions/addictions of games and social media etc., all delivered by high quality devices, means that people have a new problem of too many options for how to spend their time, rather than not enough.
Like some other things you’ve noted, this is a shared experience for all age groups. It might not affect some of the ingrained habits of older people (e.g. alcohol consumption), but everyone now faces potentially difficult choices about how best to spend their time.
I tend to think that the U16 social media ban is a good idea, but only if it’s placed in the context of an overall cultural and educational challenge for the whole population.
I have three kids, 11,14 and 17. They live in an online world. It’s completely different to how it was 15 years ago. My oldest is talking with friends on discord every night while they play games. My middle child scrolls YouTube shorts and chats with friends on messenger. My youngest is on Roblox chatting with friends and strangers using the chat built into various games. As far as I can tell none of them will be affected by the legislation. But I will be if I want to keep using instagram or threads or whatever because I’ll need to prove somehow that I’m over 16 and incidentally lose my anonymity. Have I got that right ?
As far as I know, that's correct, except that they can supposedly protect anonymity
I wonder how much this will reduce the Australian user base of the big social media sites.
Yes it feels like one more click of the ratchet towards national id cards
And add in the fact that misinformation, bullying and lying is only going increase on social media owned by oligarchs sensing a chance to rule the world using Trump as the front.
This was recently published and highlights how the poor quality of research regarding social media. As the article asserts, some games improve cognition and social media doesn't dumb us down.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/jan/29/all-in-the-mind-the-surprising-truth-about-brain-rot
On the alcohol and drug use: the seemingly global decline in use/abuse by young people is interesting, to say the least.
There is one hypothesis that links to social media use, which is that people are not as bored as they used to be. The plethora of on-demand entertainment options and the various attractions/addictions of games and social media etc., all delivered by high quality devices, means that people have a new problem of too many options for how to spend their time, rather than not enough.
Like some other things you’ve noted, this is a shared experience for all age groups. It might not affect some of the ingrained habits of older people (e.g. alcohol consumption), but everyone now faces potentially difficult choices about how best to spend their time.
I tend to think that the U16 social media ban is a good idea, but only if it’s placed in the context of an overall cultural and educational challenge for the whole population.