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For Amy, a sense of freedom has emerged after years of feeling tethered to social media.
One month into Australia’s teen social media ban, the 14-year-old reports feeling “disconnected from my phone” and experiencing a shift in her daily routine.
The initial challenges of breaking the online habit surfaced immediately after the ban’s implementation.
“I knew that I was still unable to access Snapchat – however, from instinct, I still reached to open the app in the morning,” she noted in a diary chronicling her first week without social media.
By the fourth day of the ban, which saw ten platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok inaccessible to Australian children aged 16 and under, Amy began to re-evaluate Snapchat’s allure.
“While it’s sad that I can’t snap my friends, I can still text them on other platforms and I honestly feel kind of free knowing that I don’t have to worry about doing my streaks anymore,” Amy reflected.
“Streaks,” a Snapchat feature considered by some to be highly addictive, require two users to exchange a “snap” – a photo or video – daily to maintain a continuous exchange that can span days, months, or even years.
By the sixth day, the appeal of Snapchat, which she had downloaded at age 12 and checked multiple times daily, was rapidly diminishing.
“I often used to call my friends on Snapchat after school, but because I am no longer able to, I went for a run,” she recounted.
Now, a month later, her habits have changed considerably.
“Previously, it was part of my routine to open Snapchat,” the Sydney teen told the BBC.
“Opening Snapchat would often lead to Instagram and then TikTok, which sometimes resulted in me losing track of time after being swept up by the algorithm … I now reach for my phone less and mainly use it when I genuinely need to do something.”
Amy’s experience is likely to resonate with Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who had urged young people to curtail their social media use in the lead-up to the ban.
The government has cited concerns about online bullying, protection of young people from online predators, and exposure to harmful content as primary motivations for the ban.
Since December 10, tech companies face potential fines of up to A$49.5m (US$32m, £25m) if they fail to take “reasonable steps” to remove users under the age of 16 from their platforms.
However, Albanese’s vision of a new generation embracing sports, books, and musical instruments may not be universally realized.
Aahil, 13, reports no increase in reading, sports participation, or instrument practice.
Instead, he continues to spend approximately two and a half hours daily on various social media platforms, consistent with his pre-ban usage.
He maintains access to his YouTube and Snapchat accounts – both registered with false birthdates – and primarily uses the gaming platform Roblox and Discord, a messaging platform popular among gamers, neither of which are subject to the ban.
“It hasn’t really changed anything,” Aahil says, noting that most of his friends still maintain active social media accounts.
His mother, Mau, however, has observed a change.
“He’s moodier,” she reports, adding that he spends more time playing video games than previously.
“When he was on social media, he was more social … more talkative with us,” Mau says, although she acknowledges that his moodiness may also be attributable to “teenage years.”
Consumer psychologist Christina Anthony suggests that these mood changes may stem from the ban’s short-term impact on emotional regulation.
“For many teenagers, social media isn’t just entertainment – it’s a tool for managing boredom, stress, and social anxiety, and for seeking reassurance or connection,” she explains.
“When access is disrupted, some young people may initially experience irritability, restlessness, or a sense of social disconnection… not because the platform itself is essential, but because a familiar coping mechanism has been removed.”
Over time, young people may develop alternative coping strategies, such as engaging with trusted adults, she adds.
In another Sydney household, the ban has had minimal effect.
“My usage of social media is the same as prior to the ban because I made new accounts for both TikTok and Instagram with ages above 16 years old,” says 15-year-old Lulu.
The new law has influenced her in other ways.
“I am reading a bit more because I don’t want to be on social media as much.”
However, she reports no increase in outdoor activities or in-person social gatherings.
Instead, Lulu, along with Amy and Aahil, have increased their use of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger – neither of which are prohibited – to connect with friends who have lost access to their social media accounts.
This, Anthony notes, underscores the fundamental appeal of social media: its social nature.
“The enjoyment doesn’t come from scrolling alone, but from shared attention,” she says, “knowing that friends are seeing the same posts, reacting to them, and participating in the same conversations.”
When that “emotional lift” diminishes, the platform can feel “oddly unsocial.”
“That’s why some young people disengage even if they technically still have access…without peers present, both the social feedback and the mood payoff drop sharply.”
The search for replacement apps to fill the void was evident in the days leading up to the ban, with downloads of lesser-known platforms such as Lemon8, Yope, and Coverstar experiencing significant surges.
This inclination toward alternative photo and video-sharing platforms aligns with the concept of compensatory behavior, according to Anthony.
“When a familiar and emotionally rewarding activity is restricted, people don’t simply stop seeking that reward… they look for alternative ways to get it,” she explains.
“For teens, that often means compensating with platforms or activities that provide similar psychological benefits: social connection, identity expression, entertainment, or escapism.”
While the initial surge has subsided, daily downloads remain elevated compared to pre-ban levels, according to Adam Blacker of Apptopia, a US-based mobile app analytics firm.
The decline in downloads suggests “a chunk of kids might be embracing the new rules and swapping their time spent on mobile for time spent elsewhere,” Blacker observes.
Amy was among those who downloaded Lemon8 – created by the same company behind TikTok – prior to the ban.
“This was largely influenced by social pressure and a fear of missing out as many people around me were doing the same,” she says.
However, she has yet to use it.
“Since then, my interest in social media has decreased significantly, and I don’t feel any need to download or use alternative platforms.”
The use of virtual private networks (VPNs), which allow users to mask their location and bypass local laws, also saw a temporary increase prior to the ban, but has since returned to normal levels.
However, VPNs have limited appeal to teens, Blacker notes, as many social media platforms can detect their use.
“Teens can only leverage VPNs to create a new account,” he says, so “they would be starting over in terms of connections, settings, photos and more.”
In the months preceding the ban, debate centered on the exclusion of gaming platforms, with critics arguing that they serve a similar social function for many young people and therefore pose comparable risks.
While there is no conclusive data on whether more teenagers have migrated to platforms like Roblox, Discord, and Minecraft for social interaction, it remains a possibility, according to Mark Johnson, an expert in gaming live stream platforms such as Twitch, which is subject to the ban.
“But that’s also contingent on a young person having the required hardware, the required cultural and technical knowledge, and so forth – games are much harder to get into, for the uninitiated, than social media sites,” he says.
Johnson, a lecturer in digital cultures at the University of Sydney, describes the response to the ban as mixed.
“A lot of parents seem to be reassured and pleased that their children and teenagers are spending far less time in social media,” he says.
“Equally, some are lamenting the newfound difficulty their young people are having in communicating with their friends, and in some cases with family members who live elsewhere.”
A spokesperson for the eSafety Commissioner says they will release their findings on how the ban is progressing – including the number of accounts deactivated since December 10 – in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Communications Minister Anika Wells asserts that the ban is “making a real difference” and that leaders around the world are considering adopting a similar model.
“Delaying access to social media is giving young Australians three more years to build their community and identity offline, starting with spending more time with family and friends over the summer holidays,” the spokesperson says.
For Amy, an unexpected benefit emerged in the aftermath of the Bondi Beach shootings on December 14, in which two gunmen killed 15 people and injured dozens at an event marking the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah.
“After the Bondi Beach incident, I was glad that I had not spent too long on TikTok, as I would have likely been exposed to an overwhelming amount of negative information and potentially disturbing content,” she wrote on December 15.
She reports that her social media usage has decreased by half since the ban, and while TikTok and Instagram remain enjoyable, the absence of Snapchat has been transformative.
“Snapchat gives me the most notifications so that’s usually what gets me on my phone and then everything happens after that,” she explains.
Amy’s mother, Yuko, has noticed that her daughter seems more content spending time alone.
“We’re not entirely sure whether this shift is directly because of the ban or simply part of having a quieter holiday period,” she says, noting that most Australian students are on school holidays until the end of January.
“It’s hard to say yet whether [the ban] will be a positive or negative change – only time will tell.”
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