Under-16s Ban from Social Media?? Finally! My sister has already forgotten how to talk Human

There has been so much gossip over the move by the Australian government to ban social media among the under-16s. Do we save the children or limit their childhood? It depends on who you ask. As an older sister of a 10-year-old who now only decides to speak in TikTok slang and side-eyes, I am so here to support this ban!

The thing is that my sister used to spend her afternoons either shooting hoops outside or just tormenting me in her favourite ways. Now, she lip-syncs to TikTok sounds that I do not even know how to interpret, throws in the nonsense word “rizz” every second sentence, and responds to questions with “SLAYY” rather than yes or no. Spelling? Gone. Basic math? Never existed. Yet she can recite the list of brain rot words going viral, by heart. It’s basically like watching a child being brought up by algorithms.

Watch this! What is Brain Rot and the harm it has on Gen Alpha

AND NO! this isn’t just me whining like every dramatic big sibling, the craziness is scientifically-proven to be so. For years experts have been quite literally screaming on the top of their lungs that social media is silently frying these kids brains. These apps are designed to make you scroll like a zombie, and these kids are the easy target because “EWW why would they rather do something educational and merely good for the brain.” One minute we assume they’re innocently looking up a ‘how to make silly putty’ recipe to finally get their hands dirty, the next minute they are knee-deep into “10 ways to be the IT Girl at age 10” It’s quite scary.

And It’s not just the content, it’s the collateral destruction; the kids attention spans… horrific sleep patterns and social skills that freefall, it’s through the roof! Unless we are counting talking in trending audios as communication.

These platforms are no longer that fun little distraction. They are a 24/7 dopamine rush, playing undercover as entertainment – And that’s all they’re producing, anxiety, self-esteem issues and a Gen Alpha who thinks “delulu is the solulu” is a legitimate life moto.

Ultimately, we must quit believing that social media is just innocent fun among kids. IT IS NOT about being stern or anti-tech it is about letting children actually stay children.

Let them get bored! let them somehow reach out to a book?? erase the word ‘gyatt!’ from their vocabulary and I swear by it, if we practice this, the future generations will thank us. This time, hopefully in grammatically correct sentences.