Australia has taken a courageous stand for child safety. In November 2024, Parliament passed landmark legislation banning social media access for children under 16, with enforcement beginning December 10, 2025. Platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, X, and Reddit must prevent under-16s from creating accounts or face fines up to $50 million.

This isn’t just policy—it’s protection. Research increasingly shows that social media harms young people’s mental health, exposes them to predators, amplifies cyberbullying, and creates addictive patterns that damage developing brains. Australia is the first country to say enough is enough.

But a ban only works if young people have safe alternatives for legitimate communication needs. The School Contact Initiative’s education numbering system provides exactly that—making the social media ban not just enforceable, but genuinely beneficial for Australian youth.

Why the Social Media Ban Is Necessary

The evidence is overwhelming. Social media platforms have created a mental health crisis among young Australians:

• Rising rates of anxiety, depression, and self-harm correlate directly with social media use
• Algorithms designed to maximize engagement keep children scrolling for hours, disrupting sleep and development
• Cyberbullying follows children home from school, operating 24/7 in their bedrooms
• Predators use social platforms to groom and exploit minors
• Children are exposed to harmful content including eating disorder promotion, self-harm imagery, and extremist material

As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stated when introducing the legislation, social media is doing harm to our children and it’s time to take action. Parents across Australia agree—they see the damage firsthand and feel powerless to protect their children while everyone else is on these platforms.

The ban removes the impossible pressure on parents to individually police something that requires collective action. It says clearly: these platforms are not appropriate spaces for children, regardless of parental supervision.

The “What About Communication?” Objection

Critics of the ban often argue that young people need social media to stay connected. This objection reveals a dangerous assumption: that corporate-owned, algorithm-driven, advertising-funded platforms designed to maximize engagement and harvest data are somehow the only way for children to communicate.

They’re not. And they shouldn’t be.

Before we allowed tech companies to colonize childhood, young people managed to:

• Make plans and coordinate activities
• Work on group projects
• Stay in touch with friends
• Navigate school life successfully

The question isn’t whether young people need to communicate—of course they do. The question is whether they need to do it on platforms that profit from their attention, manipulate their emotions, and expose them to harm.

The answer is absolutely not.

Why Personal Mobile Numbers Aren’t Good Enough

Some suggest that children can simply exchange personal mobile numbers for legitimate communication. But this creates new problems without solving the old ones:

Permanent exposure: Personal mobile numbers follow children into adulthood, creating digital traces that never expire

No age verification: Nothing prevents adults from obtaining children’s personal numbers through social manipulation or data breaches

Unmonitored channels: When bullying moves from public platforms to private texts, it becomes harder for parents and schools to identify and address

Privacy violations: Sharing personal numbers means they can be passed along, added to contact lists, and distributed without consent

Simply shifting unsupervised peer communication from social media to unregulated texting doesn’t protect children—it just moves the risk to a less visible space.

How Education Phone Numbers Strengthen the Ban

The School Contact Initiative’s two-digit area code system provides what Australia needs: verified, age-appropriate communication that serves legitimate needs without recreating the harms of social media.

The system assigns distinct number prefixes:

• 11 – Teachers
• 22 – School staff
• 33, 44, 55, 77, 88, 99 – Students

These numbers are school-issued, verifiable, and purpose-built for education—not entertainment, not endless scrolling, not algorithmic manipulation.

Seven Ways This System Makes the Ban More Effective

1. Eliminates the “but they need to communicate” argument
Critics can no longer claim the ban isolates children. Students have a verified, safe way to coordinate school activities, work on projects, and maintain friendships—without giving tech companies access to their developing minds.

2. Prevents migration to other harmful platforms
Without an alternative, the ban might push children toward unregulated or foreign platforms. Education numbers provide a controlled option that keeps communication within appropriate boundaries.

3. Enables parental oversight
Parents can see exactly who contacts their children through education numbers. When a message comes from a “33” prefix, they know it’s a verified student. This transparency is impossible with social media.

4. Supports schools in enforcing boundaries
Schools can set clear policies about when and how education numbers should be used, creating healthy boundaries that teach children appropriate digital citizenship rather than unlimited access.

5. Reduces peer pressure
Currently, parents who try to limit their children’s social media use face intense pushback: “Everyone else is on it.” A national system removes this pressure by creating an alternative that’s available to all students equally.

6. Makes age verification meaningful
The ban requires age verification, but clever children will find workarounds if they’re desperate to communicate with peers. Education numbers remove the desperation by providing what they legitimately need.

7. Teaches healthy digital habits
Education numbers exist for a purpose: school-related communication. They expire after graduation. This teaches young people that digital tools should serve them, not the other way around—a lesson social media’s addictive design actively undermines.

Addressing “Freedom” and “Agency” Concerns

Some argue the ban infringes on young people’s rights or treats them as incapable of making their own choices. This perspective misunderstands both childhood and corporate manipulation.

Children and teenagers need boundaries. Their brains are still developing, particularly the prefrontal cortex responsible for impulse control and long-term thinking. Social media platforms employ neuroscientists, psychologists, and behavioral engineers specifically to exploit these developmental vulnerabilities.

This isn’t about trusting children. It’s about not trusting billion-dollar corporations that profit from addicting them.

We don’t let children buy cigarettes, alcohol, or gambling products—not because we think they’re unintelligent, but because we recognize predatory industries that target the vulnerable. Social media companies are no different. They’ve simply been better at disguising the harm as “connection.”

Freedom means having real choices. A child addicted to Instagram, scrolling for hours while their mental health deteriorates, doesn’t have freedom. They have the illusion of choice in a system designed to remove it.

Building a Better Alternative

Australia’s social media ban is necessary, bold, and correct. But bans alone aren’t enough—we must also build the infrastructure that protects children while supporting their genuine needs.

Education-specific phone numbers do exactly this. They provide:

• Verified identity: Only enrolled students receive student numbers
• Age-appropriate design: Built for communication, not engagement metrics
• Institutional oversight: Schools and parents can monitor and guide usage
• Natural boundaries: Numbers expire after graduation, teaching healthy digital transitions
• National consistency: Every Australian student has equal access to safe communication

This isn’t about replacing one digital platform with another. It’s about fundamentally rethinking how we enable young people to connect—prioritizing their wellbeing over corporate profits, their development over engagement metrics, their safety over convenience.

Australia’s Moment to Lead the World

Countries worldwide are watching Australia’s social media ban. Some praise it as necessary protection. Others question whether it goes far enough or can be enforced. Still others warn it might push problems underground.

Australia can answer all these concerns by demonstrating what comprehensive child protection looks like: strong boundaries paired with positive alternatives, restrictions on harmful platforms alongside investment in healthy infrastructure.

The social media ban protects children from what they shouldn’t have. Education phone numbers give them what they should: safe, verified, purpose-built communication that serves their education and development without exposing them to corporate exploitation.

Together, these policies send a clear message: Australian children deserve to grow up free from algorithmic manipulation, free from corporate surveillance, free from the mental health crisis social media has created.

They deserve to be children, not products. To learn and grow, not scroll and consume. To develop healthy relationships with technology, not addictions to it.

The social media ban is the first step. Education phone numbers are how we make sure that step leads somewhere better—not just away from harm, but toward genuine protection and wellbeing for every Australian child.

The Path Forward

Implementation of the social media restrictions begins December 10, 2025. Schools have a narrow window to prepare for this fundamental shift. The education numbering system can be deployed nationally through coordination between the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), the Department of Education, mobile carriers, and school systems.

The investment is modest. The benefit is immeasurable: a generation of Australian children who grow up healthier, safer, and more capable of genuine human connection.

Australia has already shown the courage to restrict harmful platforms. Now it’s time to show the wisdom to build something better.

The School Contact Initiative offers the infrastructure Australia needs to make its historic social media ban not just effective, but transformative.