Do social media bans actually work? New data raises doubts as countries push ahead

Months after Australia moved to restrict teenagers' access to social media, new data suggests the policy may be failing to curb usage, raising fresh questions as countries from the UK to Indonesia consider similar measures.

Data from parental-control software maker Qustodio, shared with Reuters, indicates that Australian teens are still actively using platforms like TikTok and Snapchat despite regulatory efforts aimed at limiting their access. 

Snapchat usage among 13-15-year-olds dropped 13.8 percentage points to 20.3% between November and February, while TikTok declined 5.7 percentage points to 21.2%. YouTube dipped by just one percentage point to 36.9%. 

Qustodio noted, however, that Australian teenage social media use typically falls over the summer school break – and that some of the declines were already beginning to recover.

The data points to a more complicated picture – teenagers are adapting rather than abstaining, working around restrictions through VPNs, fake accounts and borrowing access from older users.

Copycat policy?

The question is pressing as more governments move to follow Australia's lead, even as the evidence from the first country to try it remains mixed.

In the UK, policymakers have launched a public consultation on age-based restrictions and online safety regulations, which closes on 26 May. Rather than an outright ban, the government is exploring a broader package of measures including overnight curfews, restrictions on AI chatbots and limits on addictive design features such as infinite scrolling and autoplay. 

Nigeria launched its own consultation earlier this month on whether to restrict children's access to social media.

Still, experts are unconvinced that copying restrictions from elsewhere will work without accounting for local realities. 

Commenting on the consultation, Nigerian entrepreneur and youth development advocate Olasupo Abideen warned that policymakers should adopt a tailored approach rather than importing Western models wholesale. "How many parents are digitally literate in Nigeria?" he said. "If we are doing that, we'll be leaving a lot of people behind."

Indonesia's forthcoming ban has drawn similar concerns. 

From 28 March, accounts belonging to under-16s on platforms including TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X and Roblox will begin to be deactivated – a move Communications Minister Meutya Hafid described as a response to a "digital emergency". 

Indonesia has around 70 million children affected, compared to the roughly 5.7 million covered by Australia's rules. Experts there have already flagged the same enforcement problem: existing age verification systems rely on self-declared information, making them straightforward to manipulate.

Band-aid solution

The quiet truth underlying the global push is that many of these bans appear driven by the need to be seen to act, rather than confidence that acting in this particular way will work.

Age restrictions address access, not the design of platforms built to maximise engagement. 

They do not resolve the underlying question of what replaces social media for young people who have grown up as digital natives, and for whom it serves as a source of community, identity and, in some cases, income. In Indonesia, child creators stand to lose their accounts entirely when the policy takes effect later this month.

Arguably, the countries moving fastest are not necessarily those with the clearest evidence that bans work. They are the ones watching each other.

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