Stephen Scheeler: Former Facebook Australia New Zealand CEO says under-16 ban will be 'new normal'

Next week a social media ban for anyone under-16 will take effect in Australia.

Some Meta accounts have already been deleted as the deadline looms. 

Former Facebook Australia New Zealand CEO Stephen Scheeler told Heather du Plessis-Allan he believes an under-16 ban will become the 'new normal'. 

"Now there are benefits to social media for many teens as well, but the negative effects, I think, are just too pronounced," he said.

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Episode Transcript

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five now, the world's first social media band for Ozzie
teens is still a week away, but Facebook has started
kicking the kids off today. Stephen Sheila is the former

(01:23):
CEO of Facebook Australia New Zealand, and he's with us.
Welcome back, Steven, good to be here. Yeah, do any
idea how many they've kicked off?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
I don't know yet, but they're starting. I think there's
you know, there's several hundred thousand teens that fall into
this category and on across metas two platforms of Instagram
at Facebook, so you know they're probably getting into the
thousands or tens of thousands already.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
I got a text earlier that said, if you go
to Reddit you can see how to get around this
in about five minutes flat. Is that a fact?

Speaker 2 (01:57):
I think there's going to be a lot of forums
like that. You know, the internet moves fast. The teams
move fast. So you know, I'm sure there's a lot
of hacks that get around this that are being talked
about online, but the government here has said, essentially, this
won't be hackable. We will find and shut down these

(02:18):
hacks around getting around it. And now we'll see whether
that plays out or not. But the government seems very
determined to ensure that there's not easy ways around this.
But whether platforms or fourteens.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Stephen, how are you feeling about it. We're sitting here
one week away from something that has been the subject
of much debate and I guess skepticism about whether it
will work. Do you feel confident it will.

Speaker 2 (02:41):
I feel like this is my personal opinion. I've been
out of Facebook for many years now, but I have
young kids, but I think the new normal is going
to become sixteen. The research is pretty much overwhelmingly showing
this is sort of neuroscience behavioral research. It's showing that

(03:02):
teens in that thirteen fourteen fifteen range there is a
lot of challenge for them in these algorithmic platforms. Now,
there are benefits to social media from many teens as well,
but the negative effects I think are just just too pronounced,
too obvious that we need to start to think about
moving this age. So I think it will work. I

(03:25):
think it will work. If I had to predict, I
think the platforms will make it work. I think the
government here is determined to make it work. And therefore
I think around the world you're going to see more
governments over the next few years start to move to
make sixteen the new normal. With social media, you.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
Can only go so Stevens. Good to talk to you, mate.
Thanks so much, Stephen Sheila, former Facebook Australia New Zealand CEO.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
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