Federal government's looming social media ban may be bad for isolated, marginalised teenagers

Australia will be the first in the world to ban social media for kids if the federal government goes ahead with its proposal to tighten restrictions by the end of the year.

The reason for the ban? They say social media is bad for young people's mental health. 

But some argue the ban could be detrimental to teenagers who rely on social media to connect with marginalised and minority groups.

Finding people who understand

Maggie, 15, lives in a small, rural Queensland town.

"At my old school, I was really scared to talk about being trans," she says.

"No-one knew … because it was terrifying to imagine [and] I would really get bullied if I were to tell anyone."

Maggie now attends school through distance education and says the one thing that's helped her has been making connections on social media.

"When you go on the internet, you see one and then you see a dozen and then you see hundreds of people who are just like you, people who understand you, people who you can be yourself with," she says.

"If you live in a small, remote town, you don't have that opportunity, you don't have that reach, you can't see anyone who's like you.

"If you're too scared to do that at home, at the very least you can be yourself on social media. And there will always be people who understand you no matter what."

Maggie is one of many Aussie high-schoolers who say that while social media has a negative side, there are a lot of positives as well — especially if you're a young person in a minority who may otherwise feel isolated.

"Social media is where everyone talks," Maggie says.

"I've been able to find other people who are trans and talk to them and socialise with people who are just like me, even if they live hundreds or even thousands of kilometres away.

"And I've been able to bond over my love of politics and my hobbies on Discord or on Snapchat with my friends and understand what's going on with other people like me."

A 'lifeline for queer kids'

For 15-year-old Latisha, born in Australia to Cambodian parents, social media has helped her connect with her family.

"Overseas travel is terribly expensive [but] with social media, it's a lot easier to talk to people who you can't usually see," she says.

"Apps such as Messenger and Facebook really help to keep family in contact."

Latisha says images on social media help her see what's going on in Cambodia, and helps her language skills as well.

"Being able to access social media helps me learn my home language and helps me become more fluent," she says.

Both Maggie and Latisha fall within the federal government's age restriction, potentially up to the age of 16.

"I believe the ban would distance myself from family members and make communication more difficult," Latisha says.

Parental approval may also be an issue for young people like Maggie.

"Some of these friends I know in Sydney are out as bisexual or gay or trans to me, but not their parents," she says.

"Cutting off that lifeline for queer kids, like me, would completely ruin their ability to be themselves, which is something incredibly important to young people — to understand that they can be themselves.

'I would instantly lose my job' 

Some experts agree that teenagers who will struggle the most with a ban will be those who find connection to things like their sexual identity, cultural heritage or just like-minded people online.

"There are lots of examples of people finding the support, the acceptance, the community they need online," says Tama Leaver, Professor of Internet Studies at Curtin University.

"They are the groups that we imagine a ban would do the most immediate harm to."

Through social media, Maggie joined the teen-run news program 6News as an election reporter, tapping into her interest in a possible political career.

"[Under a social media ban], I would instantly lose my job where we run completely on social media, mainly YouTube and Twitter, but we also run on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook. We run on everything, every major social media platform," she says.

Latisha says a ban would impact her hobbies, such as learning guitar online.

"It's expensive for guitar lessons, so being able to find something quickly off the internet for free is really helpful," she says.

'Real-world harms' in social media

At a summit last week of government leaders, academics, advocates, and teenagers, federal Communications Minister Michelle Rowland said the onus of enforcing the age limit would be on social media platforms, rather than parents or children.

Ms Rowland says the government knows that social media plays an important role in connecting young people.

"Social media can have many benefits, particularly for young people who may be isolated for different reasons," she says.

But Ms Rowland believes there are "real-world harms" that come from social media.

"These include content that can be inappropriate for young people to see, the addictive nature of social media, and some of the troubling activity that can occur on these platforms including online bullying," she says.

Ms Rowland says parents are "rightly concerned" about what kids are exposed to online.

She says kids' safety — not isolation or punishment —  is "front and centre" of establishing a minimum age.

Around 140 academics and experts have signed an open letter against a social media ban, including Professor Leaver.

"I just don't think it'll achieve much at all," he says.

"I think really the biggest challenge for young people is the real potential of a sea of disinformation — how do they judge whether something's factual or not, whether it's reliable or not?

"We're not teaching [information literacy] as hard as we should, but we're also at a moment with generative AI where the ability to create convincing-looking images, video, and text is so high compared to the literacy of being able to judge that and understand the context of that. That's where I would be focusing."

Latisha says some age and content restrictions could be used to filter out "things that shouldn't be seen on social media".

And Maggie thinks more education could help defeat cyberbullying and misinformation.

"But a blanket ban I don't think really fixes anything. It does absolutely nothing to progress the fight against these really important problems."