‘What’s the worst thing that’s gonna happen?’ South Australia Premier says social media ban is about protecting children

South Australian Premier Peter Malinauskas told CNN’s Jake Tapper his country’s world-first social media ban for children under 16 is about protecting them from addictive algorithms, asking: “What’s the worst thing that’s gonna happen here by delaying kids’ access to social media?”

In the exclusive special, Tapper spoke with Malinauskas, a proponent of the ban, and Jonathan Haidt, social psychologist and author of “The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.”

Australia has banned under 16s from using 10 platforms – Instagram, Facebook, Threads, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok, Kick, Reddit, Twitch and X. The platforms have said they’ll comply with the ban, using age verification technology to identify under-16s and suspend their accounts, but they don’t believe it’ll make children safer.

Malinauskas commissioned the South Australia state draft law that inspired the nationwide ban.

He acknowledged that there is value in having social media, but added, “it is doing kids harm.”