December 3, 2025 • 5 mins
Social media expert Meg Coffey joins Jonesy & Amanda to explain the complexities of the new ban.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, we're just days away from Australia's under sixteen social
media ban. It's becoming law on the tenth of December.
But Meta, the company behind Instagram, Facebook and threads in Australia,
is starting that process from today. For more on this,
we're joined by social media expert Meg Coffee.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello Meg, Hello Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Before we even get to what Meta's doing as of today,
tell us what will happen across the board in Australia.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
As of the tenth of December.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Oh, it's a mess. It really is just a mess,
and it's changing all the time. But the simple thing
is you're under sixteen social media bye bye, you can't
use it anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Out of December tap, which is YouTube, which is everything.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Look, it is changing. The big ones are the original
ones that the ECAHD commissioners come out, you know, Mata,
which is Facebook, Instagram, threads. Now Messenger is still allowed,
but that could change. Any of these could change any point.
All the big ones are saying that you know, as
of December tenth, if you are under sixteen, you are
no longer allowed to use our account. But come back when.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
You are Yeah, Well, it's interesting you said. I was
following the story of Chloe Cavell. She was our Olympic
skateboarding champion, and she's posted she has like over three
hundred and twenty thousand followers, but she's posted that she
has to shut down her Instagram account until she turned
sixteen next month.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Did she has sponsorship?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yees, because it's ad failure to do so, I risk
losing you all. This is the followers that have followed
and supported me from the beginning. I see you all soon.
So she financially could lose a lot of stuff in
the next few months.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, look for that age group that you know, thirteen
to sixteen, because you're not meant to be on social
before thirteen. So presuming the thirteen to sixteen year olds
that use it, and there are a fair few of them,
they're going to be in trouble because if you know
you're a child influencer and your way of getting money
is taken away from you, it's a little bit difficult.
But that's why there's all these new social media apps
(02:04):
that are popping up and all the kids are running
towards them. The Minister as well as the Safety Commissioner
have said that the list of what's being banned is fluid,
and that is because if these new apps such as
Lemonade or some of these other ones don't follow the
rules or are seen to be too socializing or allowing
children to socialize too much, they'll be banned too. So
(02:25):
the kids are looking for a workaround, the kids that
rely on it for an income, it's going to be
a life changing thing.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
How is this policed and are the penalties?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So yes, there are penalties. How it's police is going
to be a mess, and I think a take going
to take a little bit of time to work through. Now.
Interestingly enough, some of the apps aren't saying this is
specifically how we're going to do it, and I get
that because they don't want to be like, if this
is how we do it, this is how you can
learn to get around it. Right. But it's all coming
(02:57):
down to age verification. So Meta is using the third
party app so they believe that you are under the
age of sixteen, they'll use this third party verification system.
A lot of the apps that are using signals like
you know me, I've been on Facebook for a lot
longer than sixteen years. They're going to know, automatically because
my account's so old that I'm old enough to be
(03:19):
on the platform other ones, you know, based on what
it is you interact with and things like that, it'll
send signals. It's also arbitrary. There is no singular system
for it, which is going to lead the chaos.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So for example, I don't have to verify that I'm
not under sixteen.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well no, there, Look there is a chance because you
know you do look good.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
You know, if it catches you or you do something
that the app sinks that you're under sixteen, then yeah,
but you and I have both had you know, Facebook
since two thousand and seven when it came out that
right there kind of qualifies us.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Will this have the design effect? Because no one.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Is ignoring the horrors that are happening for young people
across social media.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
No one wants that. Will this fix some of that?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Oh look, social media it's what I do all day
every day, but it's an evil place. It's you know,
it's not good for anyone, children or adults, but you know,
we continue to use it anyways. Is this going to
solve the problem? I don't think so. There's always going
to be workarounds. I do think that it's going to help, though,
you know, I've read some quotes about people saying, look,
there's still people under eighteen that drink. The law says eighteen,
(04:35):
but people find a way around it. I think it's
going to be the same with social media. But if
it can stop the majority of children being on it,
and it can put a damper on some of the
horrific stuff that's happening, I am all for that.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It's not the car though. When the car came out,
they realized that, oh, you're gonna put seatbuilts in it,
and you're gonna have speed limits, and you can't drink
and drive when you do it. I guess this is
the start of that. We made this extraordinary thing and
now we have.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
To be the genie is out of the bottle. But
we should not just give up and say therefore we
can't do anything. I guess anything's helpful.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, I totally agree with what both of you said.
The genie is out of the bottle when it comes
to technology, when it comes to AI, we're we're not
going to be able to go back, but let's put
some guardrails in place. Let's put some you know, we
try to rely on our humans to be nice and
decent people. Sadly it didn't work. So let's put some
(05:28):
guardrails in and let's, you know, make it a safer
place for everybody.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Indeed, I'm gonna get my genie back in the bottle
app and.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That whiskey Meg.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Thank you for joining us, Thank you for giving us
some levity.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Thank you, see you later.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Bye, Make coffee then
Jersey and Amanda jam Nation.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Well, we're just days away from Australia's under sixteen social
media ban. It's becoming law on the tenth of December.
But Meta, the company behind Instagram, Facebook and threads in Australia,
is starting that process from today. For more on this,
we're joined by social media expert Meg Coffee.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Hello Meg, Hello Wow.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Before we even get to what Meta's doing as of today,
tell us what will happen across the board in Australia.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
As of the tenth of December.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Oh, it's a mess. It really is just a mess,
and it's changing all the time. But the simple thing
is you're under sixteen social media bye bye, you can't
use it anymore.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Out of December tap, which is YouTube, which is everything.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Look, it is changing. The big ones are the original
ones that the ECAHD commissioners come out, you know, Mata,
which is Facebook, Instagram, threads. Now Messenger is still allowed,
but that could change. Any of these could change any point.
All the big ones are saying that you know, as
of December tenth, if you are under sixteen, you are
no longer allowed to use our account. But come back when.
Speaker 4 (01:08):
You are Yeah, Well, it's interesting you said. I was
following the story of Chloe Cavell. She was our Olympic
skateboarding champion, and she's posted she has like over three
hundred and twenty thousand followers, but she's posted that she
has to shut down her Instagram account until she turned
sixteen next month.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Did she has sponsorship?
Speaker 4 (01:28):
Yees, because it's ad failure to do so, I risk
losing you all. This is the followers that have followed
and supported me from the beginning. I see you all soon.
So she financially could lose a lot of stuff in
the next few months.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, look for that age group that you know, thirteen
to sixteen, because you're not meant to be on social
before thirteen. So presuming the thirteen to sixteen year olds
that use it, and there are a fair few of them,
they're going to be in trouble because if you know
you're a child influencer and your way of getting money
is taken away from you, it's a little bit difficult.
But that's why there's all these new social media apps
(02:04):
that are popping up and all the kids are running
towards them. The Minister as well as the Safety Commissioner
have said that the list of what's being banned is fluid,
and that is because if these new apps such as
Lemonade or some of these other ones don't follow the
rules or are seen to be too socializing or allowing
children to socialize too much, they'll be banned too. So
(02:25):
the kids are looking for a workaround, the kids that
rely on it for an income, it's going to be
a life changing thing.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
How is this policed and are the penalties?
Speaker 3 (02:35):
So yes, there are penalties. How it's police is going
to be a mess, and I think a take going
to take a little bit of time to work through. Now.
Interestingly enough, some of the apps aren't saying this is
specifically how we're going to do it, and I get
that because they don't want to be like, if this
is how we do it, this is how you can
learn to get around it. Right. But it's all coming
(02:57):
down to age verification. So Meta is using the third
party app so they believe that you are under the
age of sixteen, they'll use this third party verification system.
A lot of the apps that are using signals like
you know me, I've been on Facebook for a lot
longer than sixteen years. They're going to know, automatically because
my account's so old that I'm old enough to be
(03:19):
on the platform other ones, you know, based on what
it is you interact with and things like that, it'll
send signals. It's also arbitrary. There is no singular system
for it, which is going to lead the chaos.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
So for example, I don't have to verify that I'm
not under sixteen.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Well no, there, Look there is a chance because you
know you do look good.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 3 (03:43):
You know, if it catches you or you do something
that the app sinks that you're under sixteen, then yeah,
but you and I have both had you know, Facebook
since two thousand and seven when it came out that
right there kind of qualifies us.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Will this have the design effect? Because no one.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Is ignoring the horrors that are happening for young people
across social media.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
No one wants that. Will this fix some of that?
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Oh look, social media it's what I do all day
every day, but it's an evil place. It's you know,
it's not good for anyone, children or adults, but you know,
we continue to use it anyways. Is this going to
solve the problem? I don't think so. There's always going
to be workarounds. I do think that it's going to help, though,
you know, I've read some quotes about people saying, look,
there's still people under eighteen that drink. The law says eighteen,
(04:35):
but people find a way around it. I think it's
going to be the same with social media. But if
it can stop the majority of children being on it,
and it can put a damper on some of the
horrific stuff that's happening, I am all for that.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
It's not the car though. When the car came out,
they realized that, oh, you're gonna put seatbuilts in it,
and you're gonna have speed limits, and you can't drink
and drive when you do it. I guess this is
the start of that. We made this extraordinary thing and
now we have.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
To be the genie is out of the bottle. But
we should not just give up and say therefore we
can't do anything. I guess anything's helpful.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Yeah, I totally agree with what both of you said.
The genie is out of the bottle when it comes
to technology, when it comes to AI, we're we're not
going to be able to go back, but let's put
some guardrails in place. Let's put some you know, we
try to rely on our humans to be nice and
decent people. Sadly it didn't work. So let's put some
(05:28):
guardrails in and let's, you know, make it a safer
place for everybody.
Speaker 4 (05:33):
Indeed, I'm gonna get my genie back in the bottle
app and.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
That whiskey Meg.
Speaker 4 (05:42):
Thank you for joining us, Thank you for giving us
some levity.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Thank you, see you later.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Bye, Make coffee then
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