Fifteen-year-old Noah Jones woke up this morning to find his Instagram and TikTok accounts deactivated, a stark reminder of Australia’s world-first ban on social media for under-16s, which took effect at midnight.
Noah, from Sydney’s Sutherland Shire, had spent the past weeks preparing for the change but still felt the sting. “I’m against this social media ban because as young Australians, we’ll be completely silenced and cut off from our country and the rest of the world,” he said in an interview with ABC News just days before enforcement began.
“We’ve just grown up with this our entire lives, and now it’s just being taken away from us all of a sudden. We wouldn’t even know what else we could do.”
Noah is one of two 15-year-olds who filed a constitutional challenge against the law in Australia’s High Court last month, alongside Macy Neyland from the NSW Hunter Valley.
Backed by the Digital Freedom Project, a rights group led by NSW Libertarian MP John Ruddick, they argue the ban disregards children’s rights to communicate and express views online.
“We’re disappointed in a lazy government that blanket bans under-16s rather than investing in programs to help kids be safe on social media,” Noah said.
Macy echoed the sentiment: “Democracy doesn’t start at 16 as this law says it will,” she told the BBC, warning it would disrupt relationships and access to information.
His mother, Renee Jones, a former primary school teacher turned family lawyer, serves as Noah’s litigation guardian in the case.
She supports his fight, emphasizing that her family has raised digitally aware children. “We have deliberately raised these children to be digitally aware,” she told the Daily Mail. “Noah knows what needs to be reported, he talks to his friends about it… This is not a family who doesn’t recognize the horror of parts of the online world.”
She advocates for safeguards like age-appropriate features and content takedowns over outright exclusion.
The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act now requires platforms including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, X, YouTube, and Reddit to block under-16s from accounts, with fines up to A$49.5 million (about £26 million) for failures.
Companies must use methods like facial biometrics or ID checks for verification, though exemptions apply to non-algorithmic messaging, health apps, and educational tools.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed the rollout as families “taking back power from these big tech companies,” speaking at a Sydney event with parents who have lost children to online harms, including Wayne Holdsworth, whose son Mac died by suicide after cyberbullying.
“This is the day when Australian families are taking back power… and they’re asserting the right of kids to be kids,” Albanese told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The government links the policy to evidence of social media’s toll, including a 2023 Journal of the American Medical Association meta-analysis showing persistent cyberbullying doubles suicide risk in adolescents.
Yet, not all reactions are positive. One anonymous parent told The Guardian their 15-year-old daughter was “very distressed” after being flagged under 16 on Snapchat, while her friends passed age checks as 18, fearing isolation from group chats and events.
Tech firms like Meta warn of inconsistent protections and teens shifting to unregulated apps, with early reports of VPN spikes and boasts from under-16s still online – though eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant says laggards will be “booted off in time.”
For Noah, Macy, and millions like them, the ban marks a sudden pivot, from scrolling feeds to uncertain alternatives like Discord or offline pursuits. As the High Court challenge looms into 2026, Australia’s experiment in digital restraint is just beginning.