South Australia sets off, via premier Peter Malinauskas and wife Annabel, world-first U16s social media ban
The Advertiser newspaper in Adelaide reports (at left) on national support for the social media ban proposed early in 2024 by South Australian premier Peter Malinauskas (Mali). South Australia shared social media summits (top right) with New South Wales as momentum led to the Australian parliament passing the ban for under-16s in November .
The South Australian government, led by premier Peter Malinauskas, started momentum in 2024 that saw, before year’s end, world-first legislation banning anyone under 16 from using a raft of social media platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
Malinauskas credited his wife Annabel with originating the global first after she read The Anxious Generation by American social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, and told her husband: “You've got to do something about it”.
Malinauskas’s initial move was to commission Australian high court judge Robert French to report on whether a state-based age restriction would be possible. French's recommendations included making the ban national and putting responsibility on platforms to take reasonable steps to keep minors out. South Australia went ahead with its own plans to ban children under 14 from social media but discussed the proposal with other state premiers and prime minister Anthony Albanese at a national cabinet meeting. This started a wider push with New South Wales and South Australia sharing social media summits in their states before Albanese announced federal government plans to ban children under 16 from social media.
The Australian government’s legislation was guaranteed being passed in November with support from the Liberal-National parties coalition. Aside from pushback from social media companies, experts were divided over the effect of the restrictions, with humans rights commissioner Lorraine Finlay among those concerned by them. But Malinauskas, as a worried parent himself and having the same conversations as many other families around Australia, believed the impact of social media on young people “is so dramatic that to ignore the evidence that we now know says is doing harm would actually be reckless and irresponsible”.
Social media platforms that focused on health and education, including Messenger Kids, WhatsApp, Kids Helpline, Google Classroom and YouTube, would still be available to under 16s. Social media companies that breached the minimum age obligation could face fines of up to $49.5 million, under the Australian federal laws set to come into effect in 2025
