Expert declares Australia’s social media ban ‘most significant child-protection measure ever’

A leading expert warns tech giants will “play dirty” to undermine Australia’s groundbreaking social media ban as the world watches this unprecedented child protection experiment.

Australia’s looming social media ban for under-16s is the most significant child‑protection measure ever taken anywhere in the world and dwarfs all other efforts, a leading ­expert has declared.

Renowned child safety advocate Jonathan Haidt predicted tech behemoths would “play dirty” in the coming weeks to try to discredit the efficacy of Australia’s new laws in a bid to protect their bottom lines, but warned failure was not an option with the world watching, poised to follow suit.

Dr Haidt, who authored best-selling book The Anxious Generation, which exposed how the rise in smartphones and social media caused an explosion in child mental illness rates around the world, said he expected the benefits of the ban to become evident within months.

“Whatever the difficulties and of course, there will be difficulties in implementing this, this is a very bold law, but whatever the difficulties, imagine not doing it,” he said.

“Imagine that we condemn the rest of humanity, we ­condemn the kids who are infants today, imagine we condemn them to growing up scrolling and watching short videos and falling in love with AI companions and not living life in the world.

“If Australia didn’t do this, or if Australia doesn’t succeed and we stick with business as usual, I think the effect on ­humanity is incalculable, so it has to be done.”

In a heartening prediction for parents fearing intense withdrawal symptoms from their children, Dr Haidt noted surveys in which more than half of Gen Z participants said they wished social media was never invented.

Jonathan David Haidt is an American social psychologist and author.

“They see that it’s a trap, but they just can’t get out of it on their own,” he said. “My … prediction is that Australian kids will surprise adults by being less upset about this than the adults expect.”

Dr Haidt referenced his own teenage daughter’s experience when phones were banned at her high school in September. Within two weeks she commented how much happier kids were playing games and cards and talking instead of silently scrolling.

Dr Haidt has written a new handbook for tweens to be released in the coming weeks, named The Amazing Generation, which empowers kids to choose a life not dominated by screens.

Asked about speculation the companies could intentionally switch off adult accounts to cause backlash, Dr Haidt said history showed the tech ­behemoths would do anything to win.

“We can expect that they will work hard to make it look like the Australia law is not working,” he said. “We can expect they will play dirty.

“They play to win, and there’s a lot of money at stake. So that is my expectation.”

But Dr Haidt said it was critical Australia forged ahead despite the David and Goliath-like battle, and “absolutely crucial” that other countries eyeing a similar move followed suit.

Dr Haidt’s best-selling book The Anxious Generation exposed how the rise in smartphones and social media caused an explosion in child mental illness rates around the world

“Given that many other countries are likely to follow, that is going to create a rock slide, a tidal wave, a global movement for change,” he said. “Parents everywhere are upset about this, they just thought there was nothing they could do and Australia is showing us, wait, we do get to say how companies treat our children. And so I think Australia is going first, but since so many other countries are already announcing that they’re going to do it, I think this is going to change the world.”

Greece, the UK, France and Fiji are among the countries to announce aspirations to implement similar bans pending the outcome of Australia’s world-leading move.

“What Australia did is by far the biggest thing that has ever been done to protect children,” Dr Haidt said.

“It dwarfs everything else.

“We can mess around with making algorithms safer for eight-year-olds, we can mess around with content moderation – none of that stuff is going to move the needle.”

Speaking from his office in New York, Dr Haidt said it was imperative Australia didn’t rest after implementing the ­social media ban, warning a far more dangerous and sinister threat was looming – AI.

He described the chatbots and companion technology as the “next uncontrolled mass experiment that Silicon Valley wants to perform on the world’s children”.

“We missed the window to act with social media because we were all in awe of these products,” he said, quoting the phrase, “fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me”.

“We’re now entering a new phase of digital childhood as an even more transformative technology rolls in like a tidal wave.

“This time, we will not be able to say we didn’t know, ­because we know there are ­already so many dead kids.”

Over the past year, there has been a surge in disturbing cases from around the world in which AI chatbots allegedly sexually groomed children and coached others to suicide.

“There’s never been a technology that came on this fast and this deadly to childhood so if we don’t do something, if we don’t do anything to stop this, then we are idiots,” Dr Haidt said.

Australia’s social media laws will come into effect from Wednesday, increasing the legal age of access to social media from 13 to 16 for ­Australian kids.

The new legislation was brought about by advocacy from News Corp Australia’s Let Them Be Kids campaign, which highlighted the devastating harms being caused to kids through social media.

Dr Haidt, who advocated for an under-16 social media ban in his book, said it was ­unrealistic to expect a 100 per cent compliance rate, with kids likely to find workarounds and social media companies unlikely to block every single underage user.

“It doesn’t matter if a few per cent are still on it, what matters is the norm, what matters is the social pressure,” he said.

“And if half of all kids are on it, then there’s a lot of pressure on the other half to be on but if it’s only a few per cent, then … we’re free.

“So success is changing the norm, and the norm right now is that kids open their first ­social media accounts around the age of eight or nine, usually with TikTok, and that all has to stop.”

Dr Haidt predicted a teething period in the first few months to work through technical glitches.

“I’m not expecting the Australia bill to work properly in December, but I am expecting that it will work well by February,” he said.

Mr Haidt has warned it was unrealistic to expect a 100 per cent compliance rate of the social media laws. Picture: Ilya S. Savenok/Getty Images for Project Healthy Minds

“I would guess that within three months after that, we’ll start seeing visible changes in behaviour.

“So it’ll take the kids a little while to remember how to play, to remember how to interact with each other directly, and a lot will depend on whether Australian parents give them back a real childhood.”

Hitting back at critics who argued the access choice should remain with parents or that the laws were censorship, Dr Haidt said the decision was already taken out of parents’ hands because any child who could access the internet could create as many accounts as they wanted.

“Parents are desperate for help because the tech industry has taken childhood and put us into a collective action trap,” he said.

“On the idea that it’s censorship, there’s no issues about content here.

“In fact, kids can still see content.

“The Australia bill is well written, so it’s not about blocking kids from seeing things, it’s about contract law and I would ask any sceptic, what is the right age at which your child can sign a contract with a gigantic company that is known to prey on children?”

Originally published as Expert declares Australia’s social media ban ‘most significant child-protection measure ever’