When Australia banned under 16-year-olds from using social media in December 2025, it became a test case for a policy now being pursued by governments around the world.
Six months on, the UK has announced plans to introduce its own social media ban in 2027, with France, Malaysia, Indonesia and Greece among other countries pursuing similar bans.
So how’s it going in Australia? Have the teenagers emerged from a phone-lit glow to reengage in the real world? And what kind of difference is it having on their mental health?
In this episode of The Conversation Weekly, we speak to Susan Sawyer, a professor of adolescent mental health at the University of Melbourne, who is running a number of ongoing studies examining the way young people and their parents are reacting to Australia’s ban.
