Thirteen-year-old Ella from Sydney uses social media to stay in touch with her friends – and to help her sleep. Hitting play on an autonomous sensory meridian response video (ASMR), which features soothing sounds like whispering or clinking to provoke relaxation and appease insomnia and anxiety, has become a ritual to help her drift off after a long day at school. “I was listening to those videos nightly,” she says of the habit. “It was my routine. Now it’s gone.”
Today, Australia has become the first country in the world to ban children and teenagers under 16 from using social media after the law was successfully passed this summer. Apps including Meta’s Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X (Twitter), TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat are included, as well as Amazon-owned live streaming service Twitch. Tech companies will face fines of up to A$49.5m (£25m) for non-compliance, with Meta already beginning to shut down thousands of accounts belonging to children under 16 a week before the deadline.
