Australia won a potent victory this week as it pioneered its most important piece of social policy reform in at least a generation. The forthcoming age restrictions on social media have inspired many countries to follow. Just as the social media corporations feared.

The industry has damaged a generation of children. Knowingly. Profitably. And wants to keep at it. Australia stood up.

Illustration by Simon LetchCredit:

“We figure we are trying to save our kids’ generation,” says the minister responsible for implementing the ban on under-16s, Anika Wells, mother of three. “But parents say to me, ‘I’m worried that my kids are already cooked’.”

The whole world erred in offering our children’s unprotected minds as a free resource for manipulative multinationals to plunder for profit. But civilisation is starting to assert itself over exploitation. “Thank you to the people of Australia for your leadership on this issue,” European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said last month on a stage she shared with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in New York.

And while the idea began with the Labor government of Peter Malinauskas in South Australia before being embraced by the federal Labor government and legislated last year, it is also supported by the Coalition. So it’s truly an Australian national initiative, not a partisan one.

It inspired others, including von der Leyen, to follow. “It is for parents to raise our children and not for algorithms,” she said. The platforms, of course, insisted that it was impossible. But Australia’s persistence has now demolished that defence, as this week showed. “This bold decision is an example of what middle powers, but determined countries can do,” von der Leyen said.

On stage with von der Leyen and Albanese was an Australian mum from the Central West NSW town of Bathurst. The federal government invited Emma Mason to speak to the assembled leaders and officials and media to put a human face on the social suffering inflicted by social media.

Anika Wells: “Parents say to me, ‘I’m worried that my kids are already cooked’.”Credit: Getty Images

She spoke of the suicide of her 15-year-old daughter, Tilly: “This was death by bullying but it was enabled by social media,” said Emma. “Since Tilly died, I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many parents like me because........

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