In recent years, there has been simmering discontent about the role of social media platforms and their impact on politics, media, society, and the lives of individuals. Now the Australian government has administered a shock treatment by enforcing a ban that bars under-16s from using social media apps and thus accelerated the momentum of a complex debate involving multiple stakeholders. The banned apps include Facebook and Instagram from the Meta stable, Alphabet’s YouTube, besides TikTok and X, which have a wide reach, and some of them are widely used by teens.

There is a near consensus that children could be vulnerable on social media platforms, and this has been found and established in several extensive research studies. Likewise, the majority opinion is that social media platforms, w

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