Social media use on the rise among Australian under-16s after ban: data

Misleading title. Usage dropped after the ban and has risen slightly since the initial drop.

The article does very little besides report this. It speculates that it might be due to vpn or the ban not working. It doesn't even go into how the ban works or and basic journalistic follow up questions.

Does anyone have a better source or info why it's not effective

Telegram CEO predicted this the moment countries started to announce that. His idea, that I completely agree with, is: Awareness > Control

Related: "Australia's social media ban has failed (reuters.com)" 02.aug.2026 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49141877 127 comments

Banning is the only surefire way to provoke interest among kids. Whatever they're denied, they will inevitably be drawn to (at least a healthy %).

The number of you who confidently commented something incorrect because you couldn’t be bothered to read the 13 sentence article is as unsurprising as it is disappointing.

The teeth have to apply to the social media companies. Fines for under-16 users.

Nature finds a way :-p

Also, who allows their 10-12yr old children to use TikTok, Instagram or Snapchat, FFS!

I hate how this is described as a social media ban. It's a social media delay.

LOL - I remember saying this would not be something that could be policed, and a bunch of my fellow countrymen tut-tutting at me saying things like “it’s the thought that counts”, etc.

Now it’s gone underground and it’s worse than ever. Meantime, there are kids in high schools across the nation who can’t watch World War II documentaries on Youtube because that’s considered “restricted content”.

You can’t make this shit up.

lol france24, very reliable source of information /s