In late 2023, the South Australian premier’s wife put down a book she had been reading. It was Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation.

“[She] said to me you better bloody do something about this ... and then we got to work,” Peter Malinauskas later recalled in an ABC interview.

An American social psychologist, Haidt prescribed a social media ban for those aged under 16 as the solution to the mental health ills he believes are caused by the platforms.

In Australia he found a willing test subject.

A bumper sticker solution?

The ban was considered first by the states. South Australia commissioned a review and then held a summit on the subject in partnership with New South Wales.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen spoke at day one of the summit, which was held in New South Wales. In emails obtained by Crikey under freedom of information, the South Australian government wasn’t as keen to hear from Haugen since she had described a ban as a “bumper sticker solution”.

Haidt spoke via video link on day two of the summit, which was held in South Australia, saying he was “thrilled” with the potential for a ban.

“We need to free kids from these traps by raising the age for opening social media to 16.”

And so the campaign for a ban began.

Following the summit, the federal government faced pressure to implement a national ban rather than having a patchwork of states implementing their own regulations.

Less than a year out from the federal election, the then opposition leader, Peter Dutton, made it a signature policy for the Coalition.

News Corp went all in, launching the “Let Them Be Kids” campaign, which coincided with Meta’s announcement it would not enter into new deals to pay media companies for news content. Front pages advocating for the ban pushed things along.

The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and Nova radio host Wippa launched a campaign titled “36 months”, advocating for the age to be raised from 13 to 16. Albanese appeared on Wippa’s program at least five times in the past two years.

The Labor government never publicly confirmed it, but its adoption of the idea and rush to pass the law before parliament ended for the year in December 2024 was seen as a bid to take potential election issues off the table.

In Albanese’s telling, the policy was designed to leave the responsibility for keeping kids off social media to the government. He framed the policy as a bid to get kids off devices and on to the footy fields and netball courts.

The countdown is on

After the legislation was introduced, it was passed by the parliament in a matter of days, while a committee barely reviewed the bill.

The law pushed decisions about which platforms were covered and how the ban would work to the end of 2025. It placed the responsibility for enforcement of the ban on the platforms themselves.

The then communications minister, Michelle Rowland, said YouTube would have an exemption on education grounds, but that was not defined in the legislation.

A $22.5m technology trial run by a UK firm associated with age assurance providers got under way, with the deadline set for after the federal election. The top line finding that it was workable was emphasised by the government after its release, without closer examination of some of the shortfalls.

After the Albanese government was returned to power in the May election with an even bigger majority, Anika Wells was appointed the new communications minister.

TikTok and Meta were not happy that YouTube had been excluded from the ban. YouTube Shorts is very similar to Reels and TikTok’s short-form videos, and the platforms couldn’t see why YouTube was given a broad exemption for a similar product.

The eSafety commissioner advised the minister in July that it was her view YouTube should not be excluded from the ban, pointing to the algorithms used to determine the types of videos promoted to teens on the platform and the harms reportedly encountered on the service. Wells agreed.

Google threatened legal action and cancelled a planned showcase at Parliament House.

Ultimately the eSafety commissioner decided the ban should cover: TikTok, Facebook, Instagram (and, as a result of the account structure, Threads), X, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Kick and Twitch. Other platforms could be added later, as determined by the government.

With the countdown on for the ban to take effect, Meta, TikTok, Snapchat, Reddit, Twitch and Kick have all said they will comply with the ban.

A high court challenge against the ban was lodged but the hearing has been delayed until February.

News Corp has done a victory lap for the ban, with News Corp Australia’s executive chair, Michael Miller, describing social media platforms as “true monsters” who “torment our children”.

News Corp’s owners, the Murdoch family, are expected to hold a stake in the US version of TikTok.