Previously little-known social media platforms are stuck at the top of app store charts as young Australians seek shelter from the social media ban in places they previously tended to ignore.

So, what are the vibes like inside these refuges?

Lemon8 is the most prominent of the alternative apps. It feels a lot like a TikTok take on Instagram, as it should, given it’s powered by TikTok parent company Bytedance. You have grids of images and videos posted by people you follow, as well as an endless scroll of algorithmic “for you” content. It has even more of a Wild West feel than Instagram, fairly innocuous skincare and food posts mixed with extreme sports, highly sexualised engagement bait, lewd jokes and plenty of fake news.

I could feel the algorithm trying to grasp on to the kind of content I wanted over the course of the day I used it, and although I was mainly trying to find new Australian users escaping the social ban, I was also getting increasingly aggressive generic rants and gun, motorbike and military content.

There are many recent posts discussing the desperate move from TikTok to Lemon8 to dodge the ban, some of them charmingly optimistic and others from people who clearly cannot stop turning their every idea into melodramatic content. (And also some with AI-generated Albanese replies, which are fun.)

Coverstar is another app rising the charts following the social media ban. It’s basically TikTok with an extra focus on safety. There are no direct messages, all content is moderated before it can be viewed, kids need parental permission to start posting, and there is a hardline stance against bullying, sexualised content or aggression. You can still save or duet videos that others post.

To be honest, I felt pretty awkward looking through it as I’m nearly 30 years older than most the people starring in the videos, and it’s weird that they’re all posting publicly. But the overall vibes are of funny kids showing off their own takes on various challenges and trends. The lack of edgy content is probably a negative for young teens looking for a new doomscroll, and there are still influencers, ads and algorithms here.

Overall, young Australians on these apps have the energy of a gleefully dancing dodgeball player who’s just missed being hit, even if they know their time is coming soon enough. At least, that’s the vibe of the ones bold enough to announce themselves as young Australians on social media.

I also tried Yope, but there’s less to say about that one because there isn’t public content at all. You set up private groups of your friends and send photos directly to them, with the app very keen to plaster these pics all over your home and lock screen. I can see it being a great fit for people who want to move entire group hangouts from another app, since it’s a lot like Snapchat but without the public posts.

All three experiences were very pleasant compared to the awfulness of starting a new account on X, which I did this week as part of a story to test if it would quiz me on my age.

As a new X user who was following nobody and hadn’t declared any interests, my feed was filled with horrifically racist posts. Most of them videos showing black or brown people appearing to commit crimes with no context, and long comment threads about the need to deport all Somalis or all Afghans from the United States.

The only respite from these kinds of posts were sketches of “pranks” that tended to involve people pretending to have sex.

It was also weird starting again in Meta’s apps because without all the data from my current profiles, they didn’t know what I like or who I should follow.

So if I were an under 16 trying to sneak onto social media, I could see myself moving to a totally new app that might not be cracking down as hard, rather than trying to sneak through an alt on my existing platform of choice.

But as comparatively pleasant as the new apps are, they’re still subject to the social media age restrictions. That means they’re required to self-assess and, if they meet the description of an age-restricted platform, start identifying and blocking under 16s.

Coverstar explicitly alerted me to the Australian law and said my account would be limited until I verified my age. But then it also encourages adults to set up accounts to use with their kids, so I suppose that’s a grey area.

It’s understood that Lemon8 is considering itself an age-restricted platform and is beginning to block under 16s. It has updated its website in a way that doesn’t say that explicitly, only that it intends to comply with the law and that any feedback about that should go to eSafety. Yope would appear to be exempt, as primarily a messaging service like WhatsApp.

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