Australia Bans Social Media for Kids

#sagarwatchnews #socialmedia #kids #australia

  Sagar Watch: OPINION

SACHIN JYOTSHI / EDUCATION CONSULTANT

In a world where toddlers can unlock iPhones faster than adults can unlock their front doors, Australia has just done the unthinkable:  banned social-media accounts for children under 16. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced the decision with a clear message —  children’s mental health comes before Silicon Valley’s babysitting services.

For years, parents worldwide have surrendered to the digital monster, sometimes willingly, sometimes helplessly. Instagram became the new playground, TikTok replaced homework, and YouTube became the unofficial parent of millions. 

Big Tech, of course, clapped from the sidelines — more children meant more screen time, more screen time meant more data, and more data meant… well, you know the math.

But Australia has thrown a giant digital boomerang straight at Big Tech’s face. And it hits hard.

This is not the first country to combat the “scrolling epidemic.” Remember Nepal? A simple TikTok ban shook the youth so much that politicians wondered if banning oxygen would be safer. And yet, here is Australia — a stable democracy — stepping into the fire voluntarily.

Why does this move matter?

Because someone finally said what parents whisper every night:

“My child is losing themselves inside a screen.”

Social media has rewired childhood. Anxiety, cyberbullying, comparison culture, body-image crises, dopamine addiction, shortened attention span — kids haven’t even finished school, and they already have a psychological resume longer than their CV.

For tech giants, kids are “users.”

For parents, they are children.

For governments, well, they usually wait for elections.

Australia, surprisingly, didn’t.

The Bigger Question

Will other nations follow?

Should they?

If the mental health crisis among children continues at this pace, we won’t need historians to write about this era — AI will just assemble data and label it:

“Humanity failed to monitor screen time.”

Australia may have started something big.

And for once, it’s not a global trend set by TikTok.

 

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