Australia admits no science consensus on teen social media ban

The Australian government has acknowledged it introduced its under-16s social media ban without scientific consensus establishing a link between social media use and mental health harms, arguing instead that "credible risks" of issues like addiction and anxiety were enough to justify the policy.

The admission was made in the defence of the government in response to a challenge at the High Court filed by Reddit, which is one of the two challenges against the ban anticipated to be considered together before the year 2026.

In its submission last month, Reddit stated that the ban affects the implied freedom of political communication but does not do anything to address the harm, as some platforms were excluded from the ban completely, while certain features remain available to users without having an account.

Additionally, it mentioned reports of under-16s who keep their accounts or create new ones since the ban was imposed in December.

Reddit pointed to the government's own proposed digital duty of care legislation as a more targeted solution, arguing that if the commonwealth wants to address harmful content reaching young people, it could do so directly through that framework rather than a blanket ban.

The company also told the court there is no scientific consensus establishing a causal link between social media use and specific harms.

In its submission on Friday, the Australian government made reference to factual agreement in the case concerning certain significant credible risks, which include addictions, sleep disturbance, and increased depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation in children.

It stated that any ambiguity concerning causation should not be an impediment to any action taken in terms of protecting people from harm and that credible risks and possible causal links should be enough basis to take action despite no scientific proof about the effectiveness of the ban yet.

The government further claimed that its proposed digital duty of care law would bring about a similar result to the ban when it is passed into law because it would compel the account-related features that have been banned in the ban not to function for under-16s on social media platforms.