Australian children continue to use social media despite under-16s ban

A new poll has revealed that over 60 per cent of Australian children still have access to social media platforms despite a ban imposed on under-16s from using the sites last year.

Three in five Australian children are still on social media despite the ban imposed on under-16s in the country from using the platforms.

A new survey has shown that 61 per cent of kids aged between 12 and 15 in Australia who had accounts before the ban came into force last December continue to have access to one or more accounts.

The major social media networks have retained the majority of their under-16 users, with 53 per cent of TikTok users. 53 per cent of YouTube users and 52 per cent of Instagram users still able to access an account on the respective platforms.

The poll of 1,050 children was conducted by British online safety charity the Molly Rose Foundation and Australia’s largest online youth panel YouthInsight.

The Molly Rose Foundation – which was set up by the family of British teenager Molly Russell, who took her own life after viewing harmful social media content – is against imposing an Australian-style ban in the UK as they fear it will drive teens to less regulated platforms.

Andy Burrows, chief executive of the Molly Rose Foundation, said of the survey: “These results raise major questions about the effectiveness of Australia’s social media ban and show it would be a high-stakes gamble for the UK to follow suit now.”

However, Julian Sefton-Green, professor of new media education at Deakin University in Melbourne, says patience is required before passing judgement on the effectiveness of the ban.

The expert, who sits on an advisory committee for online safety, said: “I don’t think you can confidently draw the conclusion that the ban doesn’t work at this stage. You might expect companies will need a bit more ‘training’ both in terms of effort to close down accounts and to learn how to do that.

“Focusing energy on a ban may well be the wrong strategy but I still think it would only be fair to give Australia a few more years to see if it is actually feasible for the companies to take responsibility as partners in this kind of regulation.”