{"id":50262,"date":"2025-12-14T04:04:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-14T04:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/14\/australias-social-media-ban-has-given-us-a-way-to-fight-big-tech-and-get-my-son-back-on-his-skateboard-sisonke-msimang-19\/"},"modified":"2025-12-14T04:04:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-14T04:04:42","slug":"australias-social-media-ban-has-given-us-a-way-to-fight-big-tech-and-get-my-son-back-on-his-skateboard-sisonke-msimang-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/14\/australias-social-media-ban-has-given-us-a-way-to-fight-big-tech-and-get-my-son-back-on-his-skateboard-sisonke-msimang-19\/","title":{"rendered":"Australia\u2019s social media ban has given us a way to fight big tech \u2013 and get my son back on his skateboard | Sisonke Msimang"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The ban on under-16s accessing \u2018harmful\u2019 content that began this week has overwhelming approval from adults \u2013 even if it had a few teething issues<\/p>\n<p>A few weeks ago, my 14-year-old went into the garage, pulled out his skateboard and told me this was going to be his \u201cskate park summer\u201d. I was curious about what was sparking his renewed interest in an activity he hadn\u2019t thought about since he was 12. His response: \u201cThe ban.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>I was thrilled. As far as I was concerned, Australia\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2025\/dec\/10\/how-the-world-media-covered-australias-under-16s-social-media-ban\">world-first social media law <\/a>aimed at preventing children under 16 from accessing social media apps was already a success. But this week, as the ban took effect, my son wasn\u2019t so sure. Access to his accounts remained largely unchanged. Many of his friends were in the same position. Across the country, the rollout has been uneven, as social media companies try to work out how to verify kids\u2019 ages.<\/p>\n<p>Sisonke Msimang is the author of Always Another Country: A Memoir of Exile and Home (2017) and The Resurrection of Winnie Mandela (2018)<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/dec\/13\/australia-social-media-ban-fight-big-tech\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The ban on under-16s accessing \u2018harmful\u2019 content that began this week has overwhelming approval from adults \u2013 even if it had a few teething issues A few weeks ago, my 14-year-old went into the garage, pulled out his skateboard and told me this was going to be his \u201cskate park summer\u201d. I was curious about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50262\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/flwnet.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}