Australia’s social media ban protects the mental health of children: a look at the evidence
By Christian Heim, Mercator.
The Australian government recently passed legislation banning under-16-year-olds from using social media — with no exemption for parental consent. This is the world’s strictest law regarding children’s social media use. It aims to protect children from the harms of Tik-Tok, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and others — to reach beyond the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Act 2023 and the proposed “Kids’ Online Safety Act” (KOSA) in the United States.
Without exception, children are always worth protecting. As an Australian psychiatrist, my hope is that my job might become easier in the future due to this law, which takes effect next year. This legislation was enacted on the basis of growing public awareness and evidence about the harms of social media use. As the BBC explained:
“The central idea behind the [Australian] government’s policy… is that there’s a causal link between social media and declining mental health.”
But does social media use cause a decline in mental health? The idea is disputed, debated, politicised, and contested. To show causality, we need to go beyond showing that two things are linked. Owning an ashtray, for example, is linked with having lung cancer and heart disease, but the link is not causal.
That mental health declines as social media use increases is borne out in studies and is almost unquestioned. But mental health also declines with the increase in divorce rates, drug and alcohol use, income disparity, urbanisation, and more. Is there evidence that points directly to social media causing a decline in mental health?
Addictive
Over the past decade, many studies have shown that excessive social media use is harmful, and that many people, including adolescents, are addicted. Social media-fuelled comparisons and unreal expectations contribute to depression and anxiety. Depression rates are soaring, even in young children. Anxiety rates have increased as well, even in the young. Addiction rates are up, and suicide rates continue to rise in the US and Australia.
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