Little evidence that Australia's under-16 social media restrictions have curbed use among adolescents

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Little evidence that Australia's under-16 social media restrictions have curbed use among adolescents

There is little evidence that Australia's Social Media Minimum Age Act has led to any immediate reductions in social media use by under-16s, according to an early analysis of survey data published by The BMJ.

https://techxplore.com/news/2026-06-evidence-australia-social-media-restrictions.htmlOpen link View original on infosec.pub

Comments3

MalReynolds

slrpnk.net

As expected, and tangential to the true goal, de-anonymizing the internet. Bet Meta got plenty of identifying information from adults though.

Isn't it about time to go after the real source of harm, the deliberately addictive algorithms used by the major social media players?

Warl0k3

lemmy.world

While the researchers acknowledge that legislative changes take time to show results, they argue that current platform age-verification checks are inadequate and that many under-16s are actively bypassing these restrictions.

The researchers found that more than 85% of participants under 16 reported using social media platforms subject to the act at follow-up, mostly via their own accounts (54%–67%). Of these, 66% reported exposure to platform age-verification checks, most commonly self-declared age (24%–39%) and uploading a picture ("selfie") (13%–27%).

seems like the plan everyone said would be ineffective has turned out to be ineffective... shocked pikachu

Lodespawn reply

aussie.zone

It's like trying to fix a knife wound by putting a sign next to the wound saying no infections allowed rather than doing something about the knife welding maniac ..