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I have a new co-authored article out in Continuum, with Rob Cover, Ingrid Richardson and Daniel X Harris. We examine Australia’s social media age ban and ask why it gained such strong adult support, despite limited evidence that blanket bans reduce harm. Link: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

tandfonline.comRestricting young people from digital platforms in Australia: the experience of digital harms and freedom of expression in community support for youth social media age bansIn 2024, the Australian government introduced legislation requiring digital platforms to restrict Australian users under sixteen years from holding social media accounts to protect from digital har...

Joel Humphries

@joel.queercomputer.com

Surveying 2,500+ Australians, we found 2/3 support the ban—including many who say online free speech is “very important”. We argue this reflects moral panic and a tendency to treat young people as passive recipients of content rather than active producers of culture, care and political engagement.

9/12/25, 3:40 am0 reposts0 likes

Joel Humphries

@joel.queercomputer.com

9 Dec 2025

This amounts to a techno-solutionist response that risks cutting young people off from support, identity and community, while leaving the wider digital ecology toxic for everyone.