THE ban on anyone under 16 years of age, using online platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, Reddit, Instagram, Facebook, and X, is set to come into effect on December 10, 2025.

I don’t expect the ban will work.

If anyone can devise a way around such a ban, it’s ‘anyone under 16 years of age’.

But the ground-breaking efforts of the Australian Government to at least try to reduce the negative impact of social media on young people’s mental health and wellbeing, leading to anxiety, low self-esteem, and depression, is commendable.

As much as young people may be annoyed and disappointed about the upcoming ban, the government believes the risks of harm to the younger age groups far outweigh the positives of social media and has prioritised parents’ concerns about their children’s online safety accordingly.

But the impact must be bad, right, for the government to take such action?

The initiative should also give all of us pause to consider what time spent on screens is doing to our own wellbeing and to society generally.

Between bingeing a Netflix series, scrolling through info on our phones, tablets and laptops in our free time, and also at work, and watching traditional TV; how much time do you reckon you’re spending, sitting down, engaged by the stupid screen? A lot!

They say that ‘sitting is the new smoking’ which highlights the significant health risks of a sedentary lifestyle, leading to a greater risk of chronic conditions like obesity, heart disease, type two diabetes, and some cancers.

And, like smoking back in the day, it may be some time before we realise how screen time has been killing us and our lifestyle.

While it’s up to the parents of young children, and also the schools to get their heads around the ban, we all need to adjust our behaviour so that we’re getting the exercise and face-to-face social interaction we need to lead a healthy, happy and fulfilling life.

And one surefire way to be more outward-looking is to join or volunteer for a local service, community or sporting group and with the season of annual general meetings and recruitment coming up, there’s never been a better time to put the phone away, get off the couch, get out there and get involved.