Most parents back Australia's under-16 social media ban despite heavy use, survey finds

Nearly nine in ten parents in Western Australia support Australia's ban on social media for under-16s, a new survey has found, even though almost all of them use the platforms themselves, and almost every one of those users opens them every day.

The poll of 726 parents found that 88% backed the under-16 restriction. Yet 92% of those surveyed said they used social media, and 96% of those users reported visiting the platforms daily, according to the findings.

The researchers behind the work suggest the contradiction is less strange than it looks. Knowing the platforms well, they argue, may be exactly what makes parents more alert to the risks the apps can carry. The reporting also points out that adults' own attitudes and conduct shape how children understand whatever limits are set at home.

Forty-four per cent of the parents said social media had had a negative effect on their lives, rating the impact as "somewhat" or "extremely" negative. The same parents also described using the platforms for staying in touch with people, finding information and getting support.

The survey captures a tension playing out in many homes: parents who use the very apps every day that they would rather their children could not reach. Catherine Archer, a researcher on the study, described the contrast as striking. She said it had surprised her that parents were so strongly in favour of a ban for their children while using social media so heavily themselves.

When parents' habits set the example

The findings chime with earlier work on how adults' behaviour shapes children's online lives. According to the report, parents do not simply impose rules around social media: their own attitudes and conduct can influence how children understand those limits.

A 2023 study of 808 parents in Chicago with children aged 11 and older found that 62.9% agreed that parents should check on their children's social media use frequently. The same study found that the more concerned a parent was about bullying, the more likely they were to back that level of oversight.

Its researchers concluded that parents' characteristics and worries can shape their attitudes to monitoring, and, through that, the way families go about handling young people's lives online.

Consistency, the report notes, is where that becomes difficult. When an adult scrolls through the evening meal while enforcing screen limits on their children, young people can come away with conflicting signals about what sensible use of the platforms looks like.

Background: the UK's own rulebook

British families read these findings under a different system. The Online Safety Act 2023 gives the regulator Ofcom powers over platforms and is built around state supervision rather than people suing, an approach that has been contrasted with the United States, where individuals take the companies to court themselves.

Separately, the Information Commissioner's Office's Children's code sets fifteen standards for online services. According to the watchdog's guidance, these require companies to put children's best interests first, to check users' ages, to be upfront about how data is used and to ship default privacy settings that protect children.

Rules for the whole household

On the practical side, specialists at NewYork-Presbyterian recommend that families draw up a social media plan covering everyone, rather than writing rules aimed only at children. Such a plan might include meals with no devices present, agreed times of day for social media, and conversations about how each member of the household uses different apps.

Openness should sit inside those boundaries. Shannon Bennett, a clinical psychologist, advises families to talk often and candidly about social media, while Warren Ng, a psychiatrist, encourages parents to keep asking questions and stay interested in the different platforms their children use.

Parents can also raise the machinery behind the apps, discussing algorithms, privacy and the way platforms make young people feel, according to the guidance. The specialists' stated aim is not to strip social media out of family life, but to help children build the skills to spot when an online habit starts to affect their sleep, school, friendships or emotional health.

For families asking what this means for them, our guides explain who can claim and how social media claims work, how group litigation is run, what court cases have decided so far, the latest developments, and the evidence on harm to children.