Australia begins enforcing world-first teen social media ban

The rollout ends a year of debate over whether any country can realistically keep children off platforms woven into daily life, and starts a real-time test for governments frustrated by the slow pace of harm-reduction efforts from social media firms.

Australia on Wednesday became the first country to ban social media for children under 16, blocking access to platforms including TikTok, Alphabet’s YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook.