“We know social media is causing social harm, and it is taking kids away from real friends and real experiences,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said.

“Australian young people deserve better and I stand with them and with all Australian parents in protecting our kids.”

With a phone ban already in place for schools, New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has indicated he’s open to exploring a similar age restriction in NZ.

But Dr Claire Meehan, a senior lecturer in criminology at the University of Auckland, although critical of New Zealand’s online safety measures, says a ban won’t be helpful.

“This to my mind, is lazy and populist and it certainly doesn’t serve our young people.

“In fact, if anything, it does them a bit of a disservice,” Meehan tells EducationHQ.

Meehan believes an age restriction would be difficult to enforce, and says savvy teenagers will find their way around it.

“We know how many kids, for example, watch porn, even though they’re told not to,” she says.

“So by banning it, it’s unrealistic to think that they won’t use it, we know that they will.

“But then if they do get into difficulty, how do they seek help and support?

“Already you’ve got a barrier because you’ve told them not to do it.”

Another side-effect of a ban, Meehan says, is it may actually remove any pressure on social media giants to create safer platforms.

“It’s a bit lazy because it essentially gives social media platforms, the regulators, plus arguably educators, an excuse to be hands-off and say, ‘oh well, kids can’t access it anyway. So why do we need to bother...’,” she says.

Meehan says limiting access is just deferring the issue, and it won’t equip young people with the tools to navigate social media in a safe and positive way.

A Social Media Summit delivered by the New South Wales and South Australian Governments has just wrapped up in Australia.

Addressing the second day of the summit, American psychologist and author of The Anxious Generation, Dr Jonathan Haidt thanked delegates for “leading the way in cleaning up the mess that America made for the world”.

He said the US Congress passed two “terrible” laws in the 1990s to help the internet grow without any guardrails which had limited legal action over online content and failed to impose strict age verification.

“With those two laws, we created monsters,” Haidt said.

“We need you to slay them, or at least tame them.”

The Anxious Generation, is a New York Times bestseller, and an investigation into the collapse of youth mental health in the era of smartphones, social media, and Big Tech.

Meehan maintains, however, that social media is not all bad.

“...there’s long been this moral panic that’s associated with it, thinking about grooming or young women in particular, being sexualised or taken advantage of,” she says.

“We sometimes forget about all the positives that digital technology allows.

“Kids are finding communities and they’re having a place to develop friendships, develop skills.

“Even for a lot of kids, kids that are maybe questioning their sexual identities and things like that, it’s providing a place where they can ask questions in a semi-safe space.”

So rather than banning social media, doing kids a “massive disservice”, Meehan is in favour of better digital literacy education, and making social media giants more accountable.

“I think we need to keep pressure on regulators, we need to keep pressure on the platforms themselves, we need to keep pressure on educators,” she says.

“In the best interests of our kids, it’s not about shielding them from risk and potential harm, it’s about educating them and raising awareness of what’s out there, give them some critical tools.”