Our data is still minimal, says Caroline Thain, national clinical adviser with the mental health organisation Headspace. We're really waiting for a few more months before we do a deeper dive. About one in 10 teenagers coming into Headspace centres have brought up the social media ban as their reason for seeking support.
The protests forced the resignation of the then prime minister, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, and opened the door to change in this mountainous country of 30 million people after years of nepotism, corruption and a lack of opportunities for the younger generation. But few believe that meaningful change is on the cards, at least for now.
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
The government is preparing a series of measures including a social media ban for under-16s, the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, said, promising to protect children from the digital wild west and hold tech companies responsible for hateful and harmful content. Sanchez said on Tuesday that urgent action was needed because social media was a failed state where laws are ignored and crimes are tolerated.
No other amendment to the bill on this topic has the same cross-party support or would deliver promptly the change needed to get children off social media. While well intentioned, they [other amendments] do not send a clear signal that social media is harmful for children, nor do they do as much to support parents. Amendment 94a is the clearest and most straightforward proposal that meets the scale of the problem and the urgency parents are demanding.
Reddit is suing the Australian government over its newly enacted social media ban, which prevents children aged 16 and younger from accessing most social media platforms. Reddit argued that the ban impinges on the right to free political discourse implied by the country's constitution, according to a Reuters report. In essence, blocking the youths from Reddit would block their freedom of speech, the company said. Reddit also argued that it was not, primarily speaking, a social media site, but rather a place for exchanging information and ideas.
It was the latest move in a growing global effort to protect young people fromthe harmful effects of social media. A group of American senators is hoping the US will do the same. "Australia is stepping up to protect kids from the addictive and harmful content being constantly fed to them on social media. It's now time for Congress to do the same and pass the Kids Off Social Media Act," Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii, a Democrat, said in a statement to Business Insider.
The case argues that the law contravenes the implied freedom of political communication. A law that has the effect of reducing the overall volume of political communication in Australia will be invalid unless it is proportionate to a legitimate purpose. This rule comes from the Australian constitution's requirement that parliamentarians be chosen by the people and the need for freedom to communicate about political matters for that choice to be meaningful.
I'm blaming Santa. As 2025 reaches its inevitable endgame, I can't help thinking we have all become gullible children enthralled by the promise of tech cornucopia, refusing to see the folds in our logic because deep down we don't want to break the magic. While the federal government prepares to take the toys off the children with its world-first social media ban, it is hanging out the stockings for the self-same tech overlords to fill with new goodies via its light-touch National AI Plan.
On this week's podcast: How Australia will ban under-16s from social media Photographer: Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg Never miss an episode. Follow The Bloomberg Australia Podcast today. From next week, Australia's under-16s will be prevented from accessing platforms including TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook, as the Labor government pushes to curb harms caused by social media. In our latest podcast, Rebecca Jones asks Bloomberg's Angus Whitley
When Matt Ross took the Nepal national football team job earlier this year, he knew there would be tough times ahead. Nepal's mountainous terrain draws millions of tourists each year, but it has also made sporting progress difficult. Hamstrung by its terrain, football pitches are so scarce that the main national competition the Nepal Super League must be played over one month at a single venue: the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu.
Last week, Nepal's government ordered authorities to block 26 social media platforms for not complying with a deadline to register with Nepal's ministry of communication and information technology. Platforms such as Instagram and Facebook have millions of users in Nepal, who rely on them for entertainment, news and business. But the government had justified its ban, implemented last week, in the name of tackling fake news, hate speech and online fraud.
