How much longer should Australia wait for the social media ban to work?

Eight months after Australia implemented its world-first social media ban on teens, the Albanese government is expressing urgency for the policy to yield noticeable results. However, the independent online safety regulator, eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, has unveiled initial findings from its study, revealing that social media usage among teenagers has barely changed.

While 81.5% of teens were still using social media after the ban, the percentage saw only a minor decrease from 85.9% prior to the ban. Moreover, there have been minimal impacts on teens' offline activities, problematic internet use, wellbeing, or parental stress. Interestingly, the ban seems to have increased parents' ignorance about their teens' social media use, with the number of unaware parents rising from 23% to 33%.

The eSafety Commissioner admitted that the ban's effects could take three to five years to fully manifest. The policy's shortcomings have been anticipated by various experts, organizations, and even the eSafety Commissioner, who warned that technological workarounds and bans would not effectively educate young people to use the internet safely.

The government has primarily blamed social media companies for their inability to enforce the ban and has proposed increasing fines as a solution, despite the ban's design allowing for flexibility in enforcement methods.