Australia’s national prohibition on social-media accounts for children under 16 formally began on Dec. 10, with the Royal Australian College of GPs publicly supporting the new laws, warning of escalating mental health issues among adolescents online.

Starting today, major platforms including Meta (Facebook and Instagram), TikTok, X, Reddit, Snapchat, Twitch, Kick, Threads, and YouTube must take “reasonable steps” to prevent under-16s from creating or maintaining accounts.

RACGP President Dr. Michael Wright welcomed the move and said many young people faced severe impacts to their wellbeing due to their time online.

“Much of that happens on social media,” he said. “We know that children and young people are spending extensive time on social media, and this is restricting their sleep and impacting their overall wellbeing.”

The RACGP also pointed to research connecting adolescent usage to anxiety, bullying and harmful content.

It highlighted 2021 Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia statistics that estimated around seven percent of 15–17-year-olds had long-term mental-health conditions requiring treatment, and 19 percent were diagnosed with depression, anxiety or another mental illness—triple the rate recorded in 2009.

Concerns continued to grow after an University of Adelaide analysis of 14,000 South Australian students aged 11–14 found daily use surged from 26 percent in 2019, to 85 percent in 2022.

The proportion of non-users slid from 31 percent to only three percent over the same period.

Dr. Tim Jones, chair of the RACGP’s Specific Interest Child and Young Person area, backed the tougher approach but urged families not to assume automatic protection.

“The changes mean kids won’t be targeted by algorithms, not that they’ll be completely protected from harmful content or contact altogether—it’s not a silver bullet, and that’s clear in the eSafety advice,” he said.

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