Australia Bans teens from Social Media

Australian teenagers have taken to social media for the last time to farewell their followers and mourn the loss of the platforms that shaped much of their lives before a world-first ban took effect on Wednesday.



In the hours leading up to the ban's midnight start, a flurry of goodbye messages came from teenagers - as well as adults - on platforms including TikTok, Instagram and Reddit.



"I’ll miss you guys," posted 29-year-old Melbourne creator Josh Partington, who makes comedy sketches about Australian life for more than 75,000 TikTok followers.



Australia has ordered 10 major platforms including TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube and Meta's Instagram and Facebook to block around one million users under the age of 16 or face massive fines.



Some 200,000 accounts have already been deactivated on TikTok alone, the government said, with "hundreds of thousands" to be blocked in the coming days.

Young Australians, who have grown up using social media, faced the prospect of losing access to their favourite apps with a mix of sadness, humour and disbelief.



"I’m going to miss you soo much and especially the funny content," one TikTok user wrote to their followers.



"See you in a few years, but I don't know if my account will still be standing." "Goodbye, see you on the other side," another said.