If you’ve got ‘90s nostalgia, Australia is officially living it. 🌏✨ Kids Down Under just woke up to a world where NO ONE under 16 can use social media — at all. 📵😳
A brand-new law took effect today banning social accounts for anyone 15 or younger. That means:
❌ TikTok❌ Instagram❌ Snapchat❌ Facebook❌ YouTube Yes… even YouTube. 🤯
Over a million accounts disappeared overnight as the platforms wiped them out to comply.
And if companies don’t follow the rules? MASSIVE fines. 💸⚠️ They’re also required to take “reasonable steps” to keep kids from making new accounts — which should be interesting because, uh, kids on the internet are basically little CIA agents. 😅🕵️♂️
Supporters of the law (and 77% of Australians are on board!) say this might finally get kids off their phones and hanging out in person again. 🙌👟🌳
But critics say banning social media could do the opposite — leaving teens less informed, less connected, and way more likely to find sneaky loopholes.
And they already are. A reporter found a Reddit thread where kids were joking about buying hyper-realistic masks on Temu to trick facial-verification systems. FULL “Mission: Impossible” mode. 🎭😆
Whether it works or not, it’s a MASSIVE cultural shift. Today’s 14-year-olds have literally never lived in a world without social media. 🌐🍼
Australia’s Prime Minister even called this “one of the biggest social and cultural changes” the country has ever seen. And other countries are watching closely… 👀🌍
So will this lead to kids rediscovering bike rides, malls, and talking to humans? Or will it just unlock a new era of teenage genius-level hacking? 😬💻
Time will tell — but your teen’s reaction today is probably: “Why not ban WATER AND AIR while you’re at it?!” 😭🤣