’90s nostalgia has been huge this year. Now kids in Australia are getting a taste of what it was REALLY like!
A new law went into effect in Australia today that bans ALL SOCIAL MEDIA for kids 15 and under. They’re the first country in the world to do it.
It includes age restrictions on all the major platforms, like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and even YouTube. Over a million Facebook and Instagram accounts disappeared overnight.
Companies face steep fines if they don’t deactivate kids’ accounts. And they have to take “reasonable steps” to keep them from setting up new ones.
The law passed last November, so they’ve had a year to figure it out. A poll found 77% of Australians support the idea.
Fans think it’ll get kids off their phones and encourage them to hang out IN PERSON again. Other people think it’ll backfire and just leave them less informed, and less connected.
Plenty of kids will also just find ways around it, like convincing an adult to set up an account. A writer for “The Washington Post” even found a Reddit thread where kids talked about buying realistic MASKS on Temu to fool the verification systems.
Either way, anyone under 16 has never LIVED in a world without social media. So it’s a big deal for them, and there’s a chance the idea could spread.
Other countries are paying close attention to see how it goes. Australia’s prime minister supports the law, and called it “one of the biggest social and cultural changes” they’ve ever faced.