They banned it. The kids didn’t stop.

Australia’s world-first ban on social media for under-16s was meant to settle the argument. The first hard data has only sharpened it, and one of LIFI26’s biggest panels is picking it up.

In December 2025, Australia did something no country had tried before. It banned social media outright for anyone under 16, put the onus on the platforms rather than on parents, and threatened fines of up to A$33 million for the ten companies that failed to keep children out. For a moment it looked like the boldest answer yet to a question every parent has been chewing over: what is all this doing to our kids, and can anyone actually stop it?

Eight months on, the first proper evidence is in, and it is not the clean result the government hoped for.

The short answer is that the ban isn’t really working. The longer answer is more interesting. According to a study by Australia’s eSafety Commission, more than 80% of under-16s were still using social media three months after the ban came in. Daily use barely moved, from around 60% to 58%. About half of the children who kept their accounts said the platforms never once checked their age. The rest found the workarounds you would expect from a generation raised online: VPNs, borrowed birthdays, fake face scans, quiet migrations to whatever app the rules hadn’t reached yet.

Not everyone reads that as failure. Assistant Minister Andrew Leigh compared the policy to the minimum drinking age: “We never expected that this would have 100 percent compliance.” A speed limit isn’t pointless just because some people speed, the argument runs, and even a leaky ban shifts the norm and puts pressure on the platforms. The counter-argument is just as sharp: a rule that most children route around risks handing responsibility to the state while letting the companies who designed the hook off the hook entirely.

Which is exactly the debate coming to Leeds this October. Is it time to switch off social media? at LIFI26 brings together Dr Sophie Bishop, Mark Farid, Katy Leeson and Megan McKenna, hosted by Joe Tidy, to unpick influencer culture, algorithms, AI-generated content and the small, strange fact that most of us now check our phones more than a hundred times a day.

Australia reached for the off switch. It turns out there isn’t one, at least not yet, and figuring out what to do instead is the conversation worth having.

Is it time to switch off social media? takes place on Friday 9 October, 7.30pm to 9pm, in the Courtyard Theatre at Leeds Playhouse. Tickets are on sale now.