Another Take: Why is Australia trying to ban social media for children?

Every Saturday, we revisit a story from the archives. This originally aired on November 18th, 2024. None of the dates, titles, or other references from that time have been changed.

The Australian government is set to implement the world’s strictest ban on social media for children. The law would prohibit children under the age of 16 from accessing sites like TikTok, X, and Facebook. It will be introduced to parliament in the coming weeks, but wouldn’t be implemented until next year. What’s behind it – and how could it work?

In this episode:

• Tama Leaver, (@tamaleaver) Professor of Internet Studies, Curtin University
  

Episode credits:

This episode was updated by Sarí el-Khalili. The original production team was Tamara Khandaker, Ashish Malhotra, Sonia Bhagat, Duha Mosaad, Cole van Miltenburg, Chloe K. Li, Alexandra Locke and our guest host, Natasha Del Toro.

Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer.

Connect with us:

@AJEPodcasts on X, Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube