The Cool Ones Stay Online: FAZ Guest Article on Australia’s Social Media Ban

Australia has introduced one of the world’s strictest social-media laws: Since December 2025, adolescents under the age of 16 are no longer allowed to have their own accounts on major platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat. In a guest article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Matthias Sutter, Christopher Roth, and Filip Milojevic analyze initial empirical findings on the consequences of this regulation.

The article shows that age-based bans can make access to platforms more difficult, but that their effectiveness depends strongly on social factors. One key question is whether friends and classmates remain online — or whether new social norms around the use of social media begin to emerge.

The article thus contributes to the current debate on social-media regulation in Germany and Europe. It highlights that legal measures alone are unlikely to be sufficient to bring about lasting changes in adolescents’ media use.

The guest article was published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung under the title “Die Coolen bleiben online.” (Full article only for subscribers)