Tracking kids: Meta exposed, Australia acts

Amid a growing panic sparked by the Netflix documentary Adolescence, senior UK police officers are urging the government to follow Australia’s lead and regulate tech platforms that “fuel and enable” crime. Another trending docuseries, Bad Influence: The Dark Side of Kidfluencing, contributes to a broader dialogue on youth vulnerabilities and child exploitation in the digital era, spotlighting the need for protective measures and education.

While Meta is blocking under 18s from live streaming on Instagram without parental permission, The Australian's 2017 investigation has resurfaced in light of new whistleblower testimony. Before a US Senate judiciary committee, Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former Facebook employee, revealed that between 2014–2017, Meta tracked teenagers’ emotional states in real time – based on their uploaded and deleted posts, interactions, and photos – and used that data to target them with ads, exploiting emotional vulnerabilities to drive engagement and ad revenue.

70% of Australian parents support the outright youth digital access restriction, citing the causal links between adolescents’ heavy social media use and mental health decline (the views influenced by New York University Professor Jonathan Haidt’ book 'The Anxious Generation'). However, Australian and international academics and child welfare experts have expressed concerns about the ban, labelling it as “too blunt an instrument” that fails to address the nuanced realities of youth digital engagement.

To build "optimal" digital environments, proposed alternatives include stronger enforcement of safety-by-design settings, better content moderation, youth participation in policymaking, enhanced digital literacy, and parental co-creation and privacy-preserving strategies, encouraging families to navigate digital spaces together.

Although the social media ban has not been central in the federal election campaign, Anthony Albanese and Peter Dutton have previously expressed support for the policy. Australia’s protective measure for youth mental health is set to take effect in December 2025, restricting access for young people to Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and X and fining tech companies up to $49.5 million for failing to enforce age restrictions. With the UK-based Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) expected to deliver a final report to the Australian government by June 2025 that assesses age verification technologies, we will keep a close eye on how the reform develops in Australia and abroad.