{"id":499993,"date":"2026-02-26T04:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499993\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T04:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T04:02:13","slug":"has-australias-social-media-ban-worked-the-esafety-commissioner-is-monitoring-kids-ritalin-use-to-find-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/499993\/","title":{"rendered":"Has Australia\u2019s social media ban worked? The eSafety Commissioner is monitoring kids\u2019 Ritalin use to find out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bronte<\/p>\n

February 26, 2026 \u2014 12:01am<\/p>\n

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The medical and education records of more than 4000 children aged 10 to 16 will be monitored for more than two years as part of a major study evaluating the impact of Australia\u2019s world-first under-16s social media ban<\/a> on young people and their families.<\/p>\n

NAPLAN scores, Medicare information and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme records will be analysed by the eSafety Commissioner\u2019s research and evaluation team alongside surveys, interviews and smartphone usage tracking data to determine if the Albanese government\u2019s signature policy<\/a> is a success<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"eSafetyeSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.<\/p>\n

\u201c[We\u2019re] looking at some key things that I don\u2019t think have been done before\u2026 this is social regulation meets tech regulation at its most complex,\u201d eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant said of the study, announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre kids taking less Ritalin or fewer antidepressants, are they sleeping more or [is] the quality of their relationships better? All of this qualitative stuff that looks at families and children, individuals themselves that a legislative view would never contemplate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Article\"German<\/a><\/p>\n

Age-restricted platforms in Australia have been required from December 10 to prove to eSafety that they have made reasonable steps to prevent under 16s from creating or holding accounts. Failure to comply risks a fine of up to $49.5 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Although Inman Grant confirmed<\/a> all 10 age-restricted platforms were in compliance with the legislation on January 16, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said more than 4.7 million accounts had been removed across all age-restricted platforms, reports of loopholes<\/a> and stonewalling from platforms<\/a> when circumvention was flagged by parents have sparked concerns that the law is a purely symbolic gesture.<\/p>\n

But instant action, said Inman Grant, is not the way technology regulation works \u201cparticularly when you\u2019re talking about 10 of the largest and most powerful companies in the world being brought into a social experiment they don\u2019t want to be part of, or do well\u2026 [because] then this will become the norm for them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Platforms included in Australia\u2019s social media banBlueSkyByteDance: Lemon 8, TikTokMeta: Facebook, Instagram, ThreadsGoogle: YouTubeKickRedditSnapchatTwitchWizzX (formerly Twitter)<\/p>\n

Inman Grant is liaising with government leaders from around the globe, including in the United Kingdom and France, who are looking to implement similar legislation<\/a> in their own countries.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Mark<\/a><\/p>\n

Findings from the new study \u2013 which is being conducted in partnership with Stanford University\u2019s Social Media Lab and an academic advisory group of 11 wellbeing, education and technology experts \u2013 will be released progressively, starting this year.<\/p>\n

The federal Communications Department is currently conducting a review of the social media minimum-age legislation.<\/p>\n

The eSafety Commissioner expects the evaluation results to be a source of evidence for replica international policies, in addition to a landmark social media addiction civil case in Los Angeles, at which Meta\u2019s Mark Zuckerberg was grilled <\/a>on the witness stand this week.<\/p>\n

Meta, which is complying with Australia\u2019s ban despite disagreeing with it, has long argued<\/a> that age verification should happen before a user downloads an app.<\/p>\n

This would put the onus of age-restricting certain experiences on Apple and Google, which control dominant mobile operating systems and app stores. Inman Grant views this as \u201cpointing the finger the other way and shirking responsibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

The eSafety Commissioner is expecting a second round of compliance notices from age-restricted platforms next week. A directions hearing in Reddit\u2019s High Court challenge<\/a> of the ban is imminent, and the Commonwealth is expected to respond to the Digital Freedom Project\u2019s separate challenge, brought by 15-year-olds <\/a>Macy Neyland and Noah Jones, this month.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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\"BronteBronte Gossling<\/a> is a reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, WAtoday and Brisbane Times.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"February 26, 2026 \u2014 12:01am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499994,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[49,48,84,377],"class_list":["post-499993","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499993","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499993"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499993\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499993"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499993"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499993"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}