Young people want to see themselves in the news

The most recent News and Young Australians survey shows active news engagement continues to tumble for under 18-year-olds. Statistics around teens following up on news stories, checking news apps, and following social media news accounts are all on the way down compared to the previous survey conducted in 2023 by a trio of academic institutions – University of Canberra, University of Western Sydney and Queensland University of Technology. But why are young Aussies tuning out? Well, it’s easy to blame shrinking attention spans and more screen time on TikTok, but the real reason might just be a lack of understanding by news organisations of the younger demographic they are trying to attract.

As the Digital News Report taught us, video platforms are driving increased news engagement across social media, with 72% of under-35s getting news from influencers. But even online news is not reaching younger groups. According to the Young Australians survey only 41% of under-16s get news from social media accounts, down from 61% in 2020. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, since, as of December last year, under-16s were banned from holding accounts on most major social media platforms. All those eyes that had become accustomed to getting news on devices now aren’t, and what they’re left with is the traditional news sources that don’t engage in the growing ‘news-find-me’ mindset. The report points to the offline version of this idea, as family and friends reign as the top two news sources for young Aussies. While it’s easy to imagine on paper that younger audiences are giving up their phones, this same report found 61% of respondents have experienced no change to their social media use since the ban was implemented. This means younger audiences are still largely on these platforms, they’re just not engaging with the news, even when it finds them.

This lack of engagement could be attributed to media organisations not actively seeking out young people where they are. The report used ABC’s BTN (Behind the News) as an example of youth-oriented news, and while BTN releases weekly episodes for TV, iView and YouTube, they fail to post at least once a month on their Instagram page, and their TikTok has been abandoned since 2024. As these two apps serve as the second and third most popular platforms for young Aussies behind YouTube, it doesn’t align with the ABC’s other, very active social media presence. While you could argue that this is largely because the show’s target audience is supposed to be banned from these platforms, the eSafety commissioner has made it clear that young people are on them anyway. Young audiences’ topic of choice for news consumption was “people my age” and when asked how news organisations could make the news better for young people, one 16-year-old responded, “by using platforms like TikTok, Instagram, YouTube to share short and easy to understand content.”

Regardless of how seriously the government is taking their social media ban, it’s not reasonable to deprive young audiences of a news source and offer no alternative. Young people are still on devices. There is a demonstrated gap and demand for a space that fosters recognition of younger Australians in social media news, especially since the report highlights the consistent connection between news engagement and civic participation. Young people with high news engagement are much more likely to address problems in their schools or communities than their unengaged counterparts.

As for the new draft Digital Duty of Care laws, which reportedly may include an option for users to opt out of recommender algorithms, we might be setting ourselves up for further detachment from digital news. Not every news consumer actively follows a range of news brands on social media, leaving those who get their news entirely through their algorithm (news-find-me) stranded if they choose to opt out of recommend content. These new changes may save Australian youth from the manosphere, but will they leave them out of every sphere?

As young Australians are left with little representation across social media news, they’ve turned to the next most popular online platform, Artificial Intelligence. Perhaps the most striking reported statistic is the 41% of teens now turning to an AI tool to ask about news. This paints a picture that young people still want news, but with a reported 82% of young people feeling that news is too focused on the bad happening in our world, young Aussies might just be turning to AI for news to help them find the silver-lining amongst the negative. Given news organisations’ ongoing tug-of-war with AI companies, there’s a clear champion between the two when it comes to teens. 

References 

eSafetyCommissioner. (2026). Early days, early insights: Understanding experiences of social media age restrictions at the three-month follow-up | eSafety Commissioner. https://www.esafety.gov.au/research/social-media-age-restrictions-evaluation/early-days-early-insights-three-months-report 
 
Gil de Zúñiga, H., Weeks, B., & Ardèvol-Abreu, A. (2017). Effects of the News-Finds-Me Perception in Communication: Social Media Use Implications for News Seeking and Learning About Politics. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 22(3), 105–123. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcc4.12185 
 
Hill, G. (2026, April 13). More than 60% of Australian children still using social media despite ban for under-16s, research shows. Molly Rose Foundation. https://mollyrosefoundation.org/more-than-60-of-australian-children-still-using-social-media-despite-ban-for-under-16s-research-shows/ 
 
Leaver, T. (2026, September 6). Proposed laws would let you opt out of social media algorithms. An expert explains. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AA.rqd5wfg3q 
 
Notley, T., Chambers, S., Park, S., Dezuanni, M., & Lee, J. Y. (2026). News and young Australians in 2026. (Australia). https://apo.org.au/node/335579 
 
Park, S., McGuinness, K., Lee, J. Y., Fulton, J., Fujita, M., Nolan, D., Fisher, C., & Nardi, G. (2026). Digital news report: Australia 2026 [Report]. News and Media Research Centre. (Australia). https://apo.org.au/node/334300 
 
Wilson, C. (2026, July 21). AI companies “stole” Australian culture, news bosses say. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-07-21/news-bosses-call-for-licensing-deals-with-ai-companies/106942202