Should social media be banned until you’re 16? PG weighs in

This discussion comes as Australia became the first country to ban social media until you’re 16-years-old in December, 2025, and a California jury ruling Meta and Google were to blame for mental health challenges of a woman in March, 2026. These global conversations and decisions have parents and teens both thinking Canada should follow in Australia’s footsteps.

“There has been a weird elimination of the teen space, so they go right from being pre-teens to in the adult spaces. That elimination proves a lot of challenges and barriers that need to be looked at and we need to eliminate. If we have the the social media ban, it would eliminate a lot of that,” said Jamie Giede, a Chairperson with the School District 57

Giede says the biggest concern for parents has been cyberbullying, on top of other mental health challenges that come from social media use.

“Social media is a lot of responsibility that they’re just not quite ready for yet. They’ve been in that space, and that’s great, but to grow up without it I think would be very beneficial. You’ll enjoy it when the time comes,” Giede said.

“At such a young age our brains aren’t fully developed, and I also think that it can affect our view on our body image, and just our everyday lives,” Cramer said.

Despite being social media users themselves, many teens still believe a ban would be best, even if it directly impacts them.

“I would definitely be pretty annoyed at first, and then I would come to a realization it’s for the best because I’ve been so used to it,” said 15-year-old Zariya Manhas.

Other teens, like 16-year-old Rhome Secor, say they understand the reasoning behind a possible ban and that “it could be good,” but add social media does bring benefits too.

“You wouldn’t be able to connect because a lot of people nowadays use Snapchat and stuff like that to contact, and that’s social media, so I wouldn’t be able to contact with people I know or friends or anything as much as I could now,” Secor said.

“Having that interconnectedness, finding your own set of peers online, finding people who think just like you, it’s quite positive, but I think that the negatives outweigh the positives at this point,” Giede said.

Also to be discussed by the federal government is whether or not AI chatbots should be included in any potential ban.

by Tommy Osborne

Should social media be banned until you’re 16? PG weighs in

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