The Social Media Ban. However will the children survive?
- Timothy Dobson
- Dec 7, 2025
- 6 min read
Why I think the social media ban is a good start and feel like we need more.
As a high school teacher, I get to see first hand what the effects of social media are on the kids I teach. We have been failing them for far too long and I think there needs to be more done to make ammends for the damage we have already done.
On the 10th of December, Australia will implement a world first social media ban for children under the age of 16. I like it, at least at a surface level. Are there parts I don't like? Yes. Are there changes which should be made? Yes. Do I think more needs to be done? Yes.
It looks like there are already more countries looking to implement this type of ban, so we seem to be onto something. This is a ranticle though, so I need to rant a bit.
What I see in school.
I teach at a school with a very high SES level, it's a public school and we achieve very well. Our kids get great marks and go on to big things. For the most part at least. No school is perfect and unfortunately I live in the state with the worst funded schools and the lowest paid teachers. That is not the point of this though, that is a point for our state government who are open with what they think of public education.
One thing which our state government did well was implement a phone ban in schools. In 2020, kids got told "your phone stays in your locker, or we will take it." That was my first year in the classroom. As of the end of 2025, we still have a lot of kids who cannot be separated from their phones. Children are addicted to their phones, we know this. But why? It's social media, plain and simple. They don't want to send a text to mum/dad/grandma/carer... they don't want to miss the notifications they will miss if the phone is in their locker. In theory, all of their friends also shouldn't have their phones... that's not enough.
Kids filming snapchats in bathroom cubicles = common practice.
As a year level coordinator, I get at minimum a message per day of "so and so is out of class and hasn't come back" where is so and so? Well, obviously they are hiding in a bathroom on social media. It could be a tiktok dance, it could be snapchats, it could be anything... the point is, that is the behaviour of an addict. In most of life, we don't enable addicts who are in our care.
Aside: if you are the Australian government, despite having the highest per capita gambling debt in the world, you are still all in on gambling ads and pokies machines. Good work Australian Government, you're neat.
What are parents doing about known problem behaviour?
If you have a child who is an addict, you'd protect them from that. Right? Right?
The fuck they are!
"My kid is on their phone doom scrolling until 4am on a school night."
"Have you considered taking their device?"
"No. Do you think the school could fix this issue?"
The issue as far as I can see it? Gentle parenting around smart phones and internet access.
"My kid wants this thing and they get mad when I say no."
The list of things I would have wanted as a child that my mother said no to, could fill tomes. Those tomes could be used as a book of death, because the things which would have ended up killing me, were ever present. My mum, luckily for me, was the adult in our relationship, which is good because, I was a fucking child. I was an idiot. Children don't know things... their brains aren't developed. The reason that we don't let even the most intelligent kids make important life decisions, is that they don't have fully developed brains.
Be a fucking adult! If you are the parent of a child, you are the adult and they are the child.
I will happily run the numbers for you, and show my working.
If your only role in your relationship with your child is enabling them to inflict lasting mental health issues upon themself, you fucking suck. If you do the inflicting, that is a different issue, but you suck too.
Our schools are full of addicts. School admin doesn't have the teeth to fully stop this issue. Parents often don't help. To those who do, thank you. You don't suck, at least about this issue.
Bullying, mental health, and dumbing down, oh my!
When someone my age heard something bad said by a peer about another peer, back in early high school, we went... oh, that's a strong opinion you have there.
Three years later, we'd forgotten it, unless it was egregious.
Today, kids will screen shot things to use against each other later on.
You said something to a friend about a mutual friend... better not have a falling out with that first friend, because screen shots.
You said something dumb and now someone wants to use it against you... screen shots.
You existed? You moron... screen shots.
When I first got told about the internet, a message we took a while to learn was "the internet is forever". That wasn't true of dumb convos with friends. Text messages? My phone could only hold fifty of them, and we paid by the letter.
Bullying took a lot more effort "back in my day", yeah some arsehole might get your number and prank call you, but your phone was not an ever open door through which the bad guys could enter your house at any time of the day.
When kids in year 10 who my brother had pissed off the year before wanted to bully 7th grade me, they had to commit to a walk up a big hill to follow me home to threaten me. Bullying should at least involve a little cardio... at the bare minimum.
Mental health... You know how everyone says "I know every generation says 'this next generation is fucked' I really feel like that is the case with these kids." They're right. We have given kids devices which mould their brains, and we have allowed unfettered access to their downfall. We have made addicts and are now wondering why they're acting all addicted and unstable and junk? Riddle me fucking that.
Read Jonathan Haidt's The Anxious Generation he's a pro. I'm just a guy frustrated by the system I exist in.
I have less to say about the dumbing down of kids, but I see it.
The Flynn Effect is a phenomenon which identified the fact that IQs have been climbing since the start of the 20th century, generation by generation. First generation to break that trend? You better believe it looks like its Gen Alpha. The kids who got tablets at birth and social media from the tooth fairy? Yeah, we are literally breaking their minds.
Teachers keep getting told to "teach to kids who can only focus for 15 seconds" you know what? No. Meaningful lessons take at least seventeen seconds to perhaps an hour, maybe more...
I hope this ban can start to reverse some of the damage we have done here. I don't know how though. Let's hope neuroplasticity is up to it!
What I'd like to see now:
This is just a wishlist.
Trigger warning, this section makes reference to suicide and self harm.
If you run a site where paedophiles pray on children and it is a feature, not a bug. Straight to jail. (Look into Roblox)
If you run an AI which has encouraged multiple children to take their lives and discouraged them to seek help? Straight to jail. (Look into the case of Adam Raine case)
If you hide evidence that your social media platform is worsening depression amongst users. Straight to jail. (Look at Facebook/Meta)
If you steal millions of pieces of work, film, art, literature etc to train your AI which will then try to encourage children to stay on it and not seek help when it is needed. You better believe it, straight to jail.
Lastly, if you are a parent who has failed your children on this front. I hope you can learn and start to give your kids the help they need.
Lastlier, the fact that this social media ban won't keep all kids off social media, isn't the flaw people online seem to think it is. No law is perfect, it is time for parents to step up and help their children, not just enable them.
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