This episode discusses Australia’s groundbreaking social media minimum age law, which mandates that platforms block users under 16. The conversation explores the implications of this law on free expression, mental health, cyberbullying, and the responsibilities of both the government and parents. It also delves into the enforcement challenges and the potential impact on adult users’ privacy, while considering alternative approaches to protecting children online without infringing on their rights.
Further reading for this episode
Australian social media minimum-age law & age assurance
- Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Bill 2024 – Bill Digest, Parliament of Australia.
- Australian Government, Social Media Minimum Age – Fact Sheet (Infrastructure and Transport Dept, July 2025).
- Dept. of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Comms & Arts: Social media minimum age explainer (Infrastructure and Transport Dept)
- eSafety Commissioner: Social media age restrictions hub (eSafety Commissioner)
- OAIC: Social Media Minimum Age privacy guidance, including age assurance types (OAIC)
- eSafety: Age Assurance Issues Paper (July 2024, eSafety Commissioner)
- Age Assurance Technology Trial reports (Age Assurance Technology Trial)
Prevalence of youth social-media use
- ACIL Allen / eSafety research: “Navigating the digital world: social media and the wellbeing of Australia’s youth” – 96% of 10–15-year-olds had used social media (ACIL Allen and eSafety Commissioner)
Mental health & social media
- Sala et al., “Social Media Use and adolescents’ mental health and well-being: An umbrella review” (Current Opinion in Psychology, 2024).
- Blackwell et al., “Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health in the Digital Age” (J Adolescent Health, 2025).
- Kerr et al., “Problematic social media use and its relationship with depression or anxiety” (J Adolescent Health review context).
- Fassi et al., “Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions” (Nature Human Behaviour, 2025).
- Barzilay et al., “Smartphone Ownership, Age of Smartphone Acquisition, and Health Outcomes” (Pediatrics, 2026).
Cyberbullying
- Patchin & Hinduja, “2023 Cyberbullying Data” (Cyberbullying Research Center, Feb 2024).
- Pew Research Center, Teens and Cyberbullying (Pew Research Center, 2022).
- PACER bullying stats and tween cyberbullying data (PACER Center).
Online child sexual exploitation & grooming
- Malcolm, “Against ‘chat control’: we can’t eliminate child abuse by eliminating privacy” (The Guardian, October 2025)
- NSPCC FOI analysis on “Sexual communication with a child” offences and platform breakdown (NSPCC).
- Childlight Global Child Safety Institute, Into the Light index + UNSW “More than 300 million child victims of online sexual abuse globally” explainer (CSA Centre).
- ACCCE / AFP releases on 41% increase and 82,764 reports (Australian Federal Police)
Radicalisation & extremism online
- Europol, EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (TE-SAT) 2023 & 2024–25 (Europol)
- RAN, Extremists’ use of gaming (adjacent) platforms and Online radicalisation papers (Migration and Home Affairs)
- Australian Parliament, Extremism and the online environment (Australian Parliament House Committee report citing ASIO).
Age assurance & bias / effectiveness
- AATT reports + Senate Committee chapter on age assurance bias and teen thresholds (The Guardian)
- OAIC guidance and UK Ofcom statements on age assurance and age checks (Financial Times)
- Shaffique, “Behavioural profiling for age assurance: do the ends justify the means?” (International Data Privacy Law, 2025).
Parental controls, parenting practices
- Family Online Safety Institute, Connected & Protected: Insights from FOSI’s 2025 Online Safety Survey (Family Online Safety Institute).
- Pew Research Center, Parents, Teens and Digital Monitoring (Pew Research Center, 2016).
- Kaspersky on parental-control uptake (~50%) (Kaspersky)
- HCI/CS studies on parental mediation & complexity (e.g. Yu et al. 2024 arXiv).
Alternatives: age-appropriate design, targeted age checks, etc.
- UK ICO Children’s Code / Age-Appropriate Design Code (ICO).
- California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273) and commentary (Legislative Information)
- UK Online Safety Act explainer and age-assurance rules for pornography and harmful content (Financial Times).
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