Lisa Mayoh: Why social media ban for under-16s is a gift for our kids

As Australia prepares to ban social media for under-16s, Lisa Mayoh shares how a year without phones changed her teenage daughter's life forever.

In a month and two days, teenagers under 16 won’t be able to have social media accounts, and as a parent of teens, the change is music to my ears.

My eldest daughter, who turns 16 next year, has spent 2025 at a boarding school program in the bush, disconnected from technology and allowing her and her peers 12 months getting back to basics.

It’s been as blissful as it has brutal – early mornings, cold winters, big challenges, even bigger rewards – but it’s been more than a reset. It’s given them back a childhood. No phones, no constant ping of messages, no lure to doomscroll or yearn for a life they’re not yet ready for. It is the greatest gift we ever could have given her, and each month she comes home, she is newer. Happier. Friendlier. Prouder.

After time disconnected from technology, my daughter can chop wood, do chores, and set up a tent and use a compass. Picture: iStock

She reads books. Chops wood. Does chores. Can set up a tent and use a compass. Has learnt that “stuff” doesn’t matter. People do. She’s met and forged lifelong friendships with kids from all over the world and, in a month, just days before the social media ban, she will run a full marathon through the bush.

Even her handwriting has changed. With each letter we get, excitedly filled with updates about the thrill of a four-night campout or the fright of seeing a brown snake and the wonder at the kangaroos, wombats and sky full of stars, her writing is neater, her thoughts more concise and stories meaningful.

She’s not a moody, sullen teenager addicted to her phone. Picture: Getty Images

Her whole demeanour is different. She’s not a moody, sullen teenager addicted to her phone – she is great company. Funny and wise and braver than I’ll ever be.

While a lot more than no tech has shaped her once-in-a-lifetime transformative experience, it certainly helped. A lot.

If I had one wish, it would be that our kids get to have the childhoods we did. My husband tells “back in my day” stories of school holidays where he would leave home after breakfast and was told to be home before the street lights came on. You’d get on your bike and meet your friends and life was an adventure.

Now we are so protective (and rightfully so) of our kiddies, each day is heavily scheduled, curated, planned to the precise timing it takes to make a household work and keep everyone safe (and sane).

I remember making Christmas cards on slow weekends and walking up and down my grandparent’s street spruiking them for $1 a piece – and then getting to cash in our reward at Toys R Us. Fun.

So I, for one, am counting down to December 10.

If I could wave a magic wand, I’d let them be kids, as News Corp’s powerful campaign so eloquently puts it. To play and talk and make things and be bored.

Because that’s when the real magic happens – and it turns out my daughter’s glorious year of discovery is proof of that.

Originally published as Lisa Mayoh: Why social media ban for under-16s is a gift for our kids