Julia Hart

In 2024, Australia banned social media for anyone under 16. Within months, France, Brazil, Karnataka, and the UK had all moved in the same direction. What was once a fringe idea has today become a global policy. The numbers behind the concern are striking. Around 11% of adolescents worldwide now show addiction-like symptoms in their use of social media, and that number is rising. In England, 20% of 11-year-old girls already fall into this category. Meanwhile, almost three quarters of adolescents in Australia experience clinically significant depression or anxiety symptoms. These figures make preventive action urgent. The reason is not hard to find. Governments are no longer just worried about screen time. They are responding to mounting evidence of harm: mental health damage, addictive platform design, data e