The Australian government has conceded it implemented the “world-leading” under-16s social media ban before there was scientific consensus on the link between mental health harms and social media use, but argued the “credible risks” of issues such as addictive behaviours and anxiety justify the policy. In its defence against a high court challenge of the ban, the government has also argued its proposed digital duty of care legislation, allowing users to opt out of social media features such as algorithms, would ultimately have the same effect as the ban, if implemented. US-based platform Reddit has challenged the under-16s social media ban in the high court as one of two cases against the ban, expected to be heard jointly before the end of 2026.
In Reddit’s submission to the court last month, it argued the ban represented a burden on the implied freedom of political communications, while also not addressing the risk of harm. The company pointed to the exclusion of some platforms from the ban, and the design features the ban was aiming to address still available to users without accounts, as well as the reported number of children under 16 who have maintained accounts or registered new ones since the ban came into effect in December last year. Reddit pointed to the government’s proposed digital duty of care legislation, stating: “If the commonwealth wishes to address a problem with content to young people, it could address it directly as part of this proposal.” Reddit told the court that “there is no scientific consensus about whether there is a causal link between social media use and particular harms”.
In the federal government’s defence, filed on Friday, the Australian government argued the agreed facts in the case identified there were “significant credible risks” of children developing addictive behaviours, disrupted sleep, and worsening depression, anxiety, suicidal behaviours or ideation. The government has since boosted the powers of the eSafety commissioner and doubled the fines that can be sought to nearly $100m for non-compliance, as part of measures to attempt to force the platforms to weed out remaining under-16 users. The peak US body for tech companies, NetChoice, is also seeking to be heard in the case, alongside digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
NetChoice members include Meta, Twitch, TikTok, Reddit, Snapchat, X and YouTube – which are all included in the social media ban.
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