Should South Africa follow Australia's social media ban for under 16s?

DL

Dori van Loggerenberg

10 December 2025 | 17:43

Critics of the ban have voiced some potential unforeseen consequences.

Should South Africa follow Australia's social media ban for under 16s?

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Australia has banned young teenagers from social media, in a bid to protect them from addictive scrolling on platforms like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.
Social Media lawyer and Head of Advocacy for Smartphone Free Childhood's Lerato Ntwampe believes South Africa should follow suit.
"We have been in conversation with the relevant regulators and the departments... ensuring that we prioritise child safety across all social media platforms that are operating in South Africa – and also to enhance parental support."
Ntwampe adds that they also aim to make sure that the SA platforms are accountable for some of the harm that has been seen globally. She says the Australian model is useful for other countries to emulate, especially in terms of how the penalties will work.
However, there are some critics of the new legislation because children – and especially young teenagers – are known to be rebellious, so how can we avoid sending social media activity into underground and covert spaces?
On this concern of potential unforeseen consequences, Ntwampe says, "We can't prioritise one harm over the other. Kids will obviously try to be creative... they use VPNs... once kids start socialising together, they actually don't really need that social media."
To listen to Lerato Ntwampe in conversation with 702's John Perlman, click the audio below:
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