{"id":342261,"date":"2025-12-11T03:12:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342261\/"},"modified":"2025-12-11T03:12:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T03:12:08","slug":"south-australia-premier-says-social-media-ban-is-about-protecting-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/342261\/","title":{"rendered":"South Australia Premier says social media ban is about protecting children"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper his country\u2019s world-first social media ban<\/a> for children under 16 is about protecting them from addictive algorithms, asking: \u201cWhat\u2019s the worst thing that\u2019s gonna happen here by delaying kids\u2019 access to social media?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n In the exclusive special, Tapper spoke with Malinauskas, a proponent of the ban, and Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author of \u201cThe Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Australia has banned under 16s from using 10 platforms \u2013 Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, Kick, Reddit, Twitch and X. The platforms have said they\u2019ll comply with the ban, using age verification technology to identify under-16s and suspend their accounts, but they don\u2019t believe it\u2019ll make children safer.\n <\/p>\n

\n Malinauskas commissioned the South Australia state draft law that inspired the nationwide ban.\n <\/p>\n

\n He acknowledged that there is value in having social media, but added, \u201cit is doing kids harm.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe know, definitively, it is having severe consequence for thousands of young children around the world,\u201d the premier said.\n <\/p>\n

\n When asked about teens migrating to non-banned platforms and still being able to access potentially harmful parts of the internet, the Australian premier pointed out the concerns with social media apps in particular.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe difference between everything that\u2019s available on the internet and a social media service, is that addictive nature. It is the algorithms,\u201d he told Tapper. Malinauskas explained that social media applications authorize children to share personal data with a company \u201cto utilize and monetize,\u201d and that additional platforms could be added to the ban.\n <\/p>\n

\n Additional social media apps that meet the criteria can be added to the ban, the premier said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOur legislation has a great degree of flexibility so for platforms or businesses that meet the criteria, it allows our eSafety commissioner and the minister to add them to the list, and they too will be banned,\u201d Malinauskas said.\n <\/p>\n

\n eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has also previously said that the list of banned sites is evolving, and new sites could be added as they gain popularity or offer new services.\n <\/p>\n

\n Haidt described social media as \u201cthe largest corporate destruction of human potential in human history,\u201d and said the ban in Australia will help children.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey will now be more motivated to actually spend time with other kids, which is the best thing you can do for mental health,\u201d Haidt said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Premier acknowledged the ban would not be perfect and said reports of teens circumventing it using VPNs are \u201call very predictable.\u201d But he stressed that thousands of Australian kids now have more time now that they\u2019ve lost access to their social media accounts.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cBut more than that, parents are now having conversations with their kids in a way that they didn\u2019t feel they were empowered prior to the ban,\u201d Malinauskas said.\n <\/p>\n

\n The South Australia leader recounted a recent interaction he had with a flight attendant whose daughter lost access to her Snapchat account.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhile she was still looking at her phone, she was looking at it a lot less,\u201d Malinauskas said, adding that the mother told him she noticed an improvement in her ability to be able to talk to her daughter.\n <\/p>\n

\n Watch the full interview with South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas and Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation, on CNN.com\/Watch<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas told CNN\u2019s Jake Tapper his country\u2019s world-first social media ban for children under…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,92],"class_list":{"0":"post-342261","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}