Social media ban for children is ‘destined to fail' unless parents address their own smart phone addiction, pyschologist warns

7NEWS

21-06-2025

Australia is just six months away from bringing in a world-leading law to ban children under 16 from social media but experts say more needs to be done before it comes into effect.
Psychologist Danielle Einstein, who briefed the draft legislation for the ban, was on Weekend Sunrise on Saturday to address how it could work.
Previously Einstein warned the ban would 'fail miserably' unless the federal government tackles screen addiction first.
'We need a few different things. First of all, we need doctors and psychologists asking patients when they come in with mental health issues about their tech use,' she told Weekend Sunrise.
'It should just be part of normal conversation — 'let's have a look, how many hours were you on here?'
'It's a part of the way we are trying to handle ourselves, and if someone has anxiety and depression, and you miss it because it's not seen as alright to ask about it and the doctors are embarrassed or if the patient makes it seem as if it's not OK (for asking).'
Einstein said she didn't mean doctors had to go into extreme detail of how a person uses social media and technology but said conversations around tech use needed to be a part of a 'digital health check' in the same way doctors use a suicide screening.
She also said a big public health campaign would be needed to 'expose the addictive' nature of social media and the corresponding health effects it may have on Australians.
'Both students and parents may realise that this isn't actually healthy for them,' Einstein said.
For parents wondering what to do now, before the ban is imposed, Einstein encouraged adults to lead by example and cut back on their own technology use.
'The most important thing a parent can do is model,' she said.
'Parents need to be aware of what we do when we walk into the house (or when) at the dinner table: 'Do I have a phone that's near me?''
Einstein said using phones during arguments between parents to show the other person they were wrong had also become common practice but this could be easily stopped if phones are put out of sight.
Despite the potential difficulties with executing the ban, Einstein said the federal government's decision to prevent harm to young Australian's should be looked at as a 'tremendous success' as other countries look to follow our example.
'We are leading the world, and we should be very proud of that,' Einstein said.
'Around the world, we've seen people wake up and start to question tech use.
'In Spain, there are paediatric guidelines coming out to show children from zero to six shouldn't have technology, aside for supervised use.'
The social media ban for children under 16 years old is expected to come into effect in December 2025.
The ban was first announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese last year, who said he was 'calling time on it' due to a number of tragic deaths relating to bullying on social media.
But there is yet no guarantee technologies aimed at blocking young kids from social media will always work, according to early trial results.
While the early findings of a federal government-commissioned trial found age assurance technologies are available, there's no silver bullet.
'Age assurance can be done in Australia and can be private, robust and effective,' the report found.
'We found a plethora of approaches that fit use cases in different ways.
'But we did not find a single ubiquitous solution that would suit all use cases, nor did we find solutions that were guaranteed to be effective in all deployments.'
Under the social media ban, platforms will have to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from creating new accounts and could face millions in fines for systemic breaches of the new rules.
Cabinet minister Murray Watt maintained the need for restrictions around social media.
'The Australian people believe that we do need to see some restrictions around social media use when it comes to young people,' he told ABC News on Friday.
'Unfortunately, it has become an insidious force, both for young people and more widely.'
Australia's ban is world-leading and, in the aftermath of the November passage of federal laws, other nations indicated a desire to emulate the measure.
However, the legislation does not indicate how exactly the ban will be executed.
The report found parental control and consent systems could be effective when first introduced.
But there is 'limited evidence' that they would be effective as children grow up or allow kids the right to participate in the breadth of digital experiences.
Even after the coalition helped secure an amendment to ensure Australians wouldn't have to provide any form of government identification to verify their age, the trial found there was a risk of privacy breaches.
Some age assurance service providers had over-anticipated the needs of regulators and built tools that led to an 'unnecessary and disproportionate collection and retention of data'.
Opposition communications spokeswoman Melissa McIntosh has urged Labor to confirm what technology or verification tools will be used to protect kids online.
'No more young lives can be lost or families destroyed because of the toxicity of social media,' she said in a statement.
The Age Assurance Technology Trial's final report is expected to be published later in 2025.