From December 10th 2025 the Australian Government is introducing new laws to restrict social media sites such as Tik Tok, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), even YouTube, for under 16s.
FANTASTIC!
While the move has been heavily criticised by both the terminally online and the “influencers” who will no longer be able to monetise the impressionable minds of the youth, it’s difficult to argue that the seemingly unchecked deluge of grooming, misogyny, pornography and countless other examples of exploitative and abusive content have had a profound impact on the mental health of the children who have been subjected to it. This isn’t to mention the unrealistic expectations placed upon them by Instagram influencers who flaunt perfectly curated (read: fake) snapshots of their lives, and the flood of fake news and AI generated slop that only serves to further our ignorance of the truth and further divide our fractured society.
Sure, the restrictions are going to upset people. The proposed verification methods controversially utilise AI to guess your age, involve handing private companies your private and biometric data, and their efficacy is questionable since the current security measures can be defeated by simply holding up a picture of a video game character to your webcam.
But for me the measures don’t go nearly far enough. Since when do children have a monopoly on depression, anxiety and being subjected to abuse online? It’s not just bored teenagers who spend hour after hour having their minds eroded while doomscrolling through the socials. It isn’t only twelve-year-olds who have the almighty algorithm constantly bombard them with fake clickbait articles and a never-ending deluge of targeted (yet somehow never relevant) advertising, or that succumb to perhaps the worst fate that can befall any of us: being trapped in the cesspool that is the YouTube comment section.
The social media landscape has been taken over by trolls (so many trolls), and by the unscrupulous whose only aim is to manipulate others for their own gain, be it monetary, political or otherwise. It is damaging both to our society as a whole, and to us as individuals. And since we the people clearly can’t be trusted to make the right decisions, it must fall to the government to step in and save us from ourselves. So now, with the rest of the world watching as Australia pioneer online social media restrictions, I call upon this Labor government to expand the ban and rid us of these social media platforms outright.
Because after all, our elected officials can always be trusted to act in the interest of the people… right?
Kathrynf 
Alexander Hanjin De Filippo 
Eabha Quinn