Jimmy Wales calls Australia's under-16 social media ban a disaster
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · May 4
Jimmy Wales calls Australia's under-16 social media ban a disaster
15 articles · Updated · The Guardian · May 4
Speaking to Guardian Australia ahead of May writers' festival appearances in Melbourne and Sydney, the Wikipedia founder said age checks force adults and children to hand over identifying data.
He argued facial age assurance, including Roblox's system, normalises unsafe surveillance behaviour and said governments should promote parental controls or child-phone defaults instead of broad bans.
Wales also said AI chatbots have cut Wikipedia's human traffic by 8%, while crawler bots are raising costs, prompting stronger pushes for paid enterprise database access.
With AI draining users and hammering its servers, can Wikipedia’s human-powered knowledge model survive the chatbot revolution?
As Australia’s social media ban for teens is now law, has it created the 'surveillance hell' that experts predicted?
The Impact and Limitations of Australia’s Under-16 Social Media Ban: Privacy Risks, Circumvention, and Global Ripple Effects
Overview
Australia's groundbreaking social media ban for users under 16, effective December 2025, led to the removal of over 4.5 million minor accounts but faced widespread criticism. Minors often bypassed the ban using false ages, VPNs, or migrating to unregulated platforms, increasing their exposure to risks. Jimmy Wales condemned the policy for its invasive age verification methods that threaten privacy and for failing to address harmful predatory algorithms driving online harms. While some parents noted positive changes, the ban also caused social isolation and family conflicts. Globally, Australia's approach sparked similar laws and legal challenges, prompting experts to advocate for alternatives like media literacy education, parental empowerment, and platform reform to better protect children online.