When a French journalist visited MultiRay to interview our teenage girls about Australia's social media ban, their answers revealed something far more interesting than a simple debate about whether the ban works.
Yesterday, we had a French journalist visit MultiRay to interview some of our girls about Australia's social media ban.
With countries across Europe exploring similar restrictions, there is growing international interest in what is happening here in Australia and, more importantly, how young people themselves are experiencing it.
And I have to say, I was absolutely blown away by these young ladies.
Not because they had all the answers. Not because they agreed with one another. But because they were so beautifully articulate, thoughtful and confident in sharing their perspectives.
As an educator, these are the moments I live for.
And what I found particularly fascinating was that their experiences weren't all the same.
Some felt the ban had made very little difference. Others had noticed positive changes in their friendships. Some questioned whether the restrictions could ever really work when young people were finding ways around them.
And one observation kept coming back to me.
Perhaps we're spending so much time debating what young people should and shouldn't have access to that we're forgetting to ask them what life actually looks like from their perspective.
"Everything I see on TikTok is fake."
One of the girls made a comment that really stayed with me.
"I just have to constantly have to remind myself that everything I see on TikTok is fake."
What a fascinating insight.
Here is a young person who already recognises that what she sees online isn't necessarily a true reflection of reality.
She knows she needs to question it.
And yet, she also recognises that she has to keep reminding herself.
I think there's something incredibly important in that distinction.
We can understand something intellectually and still be influenced by it emotionally.
We can know that photographs are edited, that lifestyles are carefully curated, that algorithms are designed to hold our attention, and still find ourselves comparing our lives to what we see.
And that isn't just a teenage problem, is it?
How many of us adults could benefit from reminding ourselves of exactly the same thing?
For me, this is where conversations about digital wellbeing become so important.
It's not simply about telling children that social media can be harmful.
It's about helping them recognise how it influences their thinking, their emotions, their self-image and the decisions they make.
Awareness is an important beginning. But knowing something and being able to navigate it are two different skills.
"The ban actually brought my friends more into the moment."
This was another comment I absolutely loved.
"I feel like the ban did impact my life a bit because it actually brought my friends more into the moment when we are hanging out, so my social interactions improved."
Isn't that interesting?
While some of the girls questioned whether the ban had been effective, here was a young person who had noticed something positive in her everyday life.
Her friends were more present.
They were spending more time actually engaging with one another.
And she felt that her social interactions had improved.
Another girl observed:
"Everyone found a way around the ban, but people were still using it less."
These two observations are particularly interesting when considered together.
Because perhaps the question isn't simply whether the ban has successfully stopped every young person from accessing social media.
Perhaps we should also be exploring whether it has changed habits, behaviours and the ways young people spend time together.
Of course, the experiences of a few young people cannot tell us whether a national policy has been successful.
But they can help us understand the kinds of changes that are worth investigating.
And I think that's valuable.
When social media becomes part of your identity
One of the girls offered another perspective.
"It's just been a part of our lives so it's not been effective, it's a part of our generation's identity."
I found this particularly thought-provoking.
For many adults, social media arrived at a particular point in our lives.
We remember a time before it.
But for this generation, digital communication has always been woven into the world around them.
It's where friendships develop, jokes are shared, trends emerge, communities form and young people explore different aspects of who they are.
Another girl explained:
"Personally Snapchat is just a messaging app for me and my friends."
And that distinction matters.
Because while adults might think of social media primarily as a place where children consume content, young people may experience certain platforms as an ordinary part of communicating with their friends.
Of course, that doesn't mean every aspect of those platforms is safe or beneficial.
But it does mean that when we discuss restricting access, we need to understand what young people believe they're losing, as well as what we're hoping to protect them from.
The social media paradox: Connected to everyone, but feeling left out
One of the most interesting themes to emerge from the conversation was the relationship between social media and belonging.
The girls spoke about how being excluded from online conversations can create a different kind of social exclusion.
Imagine arriving at school on Monday morning.
Everyone is laughing about something that happened online over the weekend.
There's a new trend, an inside joke, a video that's been shared around.
Everyone knows what everyone is talking about.
Except you.
You weren't part of the conversation. You haven't seen the video. You don't understand the joke.
And suddenly, you're standing in a group of friends feeling completely on the outside.
One of the girls reflected:
"All the ban did was separate people online more, because it's still a thing people are craving, they just create new accounts, the ban wasn't very effective, we just found a way around it."
Another explained that she had expected the restrictions to work differently:
"I thought the ban was going to affect more people and that the ban was just going to automatically ban people from TikTok but it didn't, we are able to get around the ban easily."
These are individual experiences, of course, but they raise important questions about how young people understand the restrictions and how the policy is working in practice.
And they highlight a contradiction worth exploring.
Social media promises connection, yet it can also create new ways for young people to feel excluded.
And removing access to a platform doesn't automatically remove the social dynamics surrounding it.
For teenagers, belonging matters enormously.
Friendships, shared experiences, humour and social identity all play an important role in how they understand themselves and their place in the world.
Sometimes, what looks like a conversation about screen time is actually a conversation about belonging.
Banning social media is one conversation. Teaching digital wellbeing is another.
Australia's under-16 social media restrictions came into effect in December 2025, requiring certain platforms to take reasonable steps to prevent under-16s from holding accounts.
And I can understand why governments are exploring these measures.
As adults, we want to protect children.
We want them to grow up feeling confident in themselves, secure in their friendships and capable of navigating an increasingly complicated world.
But I wonder whether we're sometimes so focused on protecting young people from the outside world that we overlook the importance of helping them understand their own inner world.
Because at some point, restrictions change. Children grow older. New technologies emerge. The next platform arrives.
And then what?
Have we helped young people recognise when something online is affecting their self-worth?
Can they notice when scrolling leaves them feeling anxious, inadequate or disconnected?
Can they question the information they're being presented with?
Can they recognise when an online interaction doesn't feel right?
Can they confidently set boundaries, seek support and make decisions that feel right for them?
These are skills that extend far beyond social media.
They are skills for life.
And they're not necessarily developed through rules alone.
They grow through conversations, reflection, relationships, education and opportunities to practise making decisions.
What impressed me most wasn't their opinions. It was how they arrived at them.
At MultiRay, one of the things I'm most passionate about is helping children discover how they think, how they learn, how they regulate their emotions and what makes them uniquely themselves.
I believe self-awareness is one of the most valuable things we can help a child develop.
And watching these girls speak yesterday reminded me why.
They weren't simply repeating what adults had told them.
They were drawing on their own experiences, recognising contradictions, considering different perspectives and forming their own opinions.
One girl felt the ban had improved her friendships.
Another questioned its effectiveness.
Another recognised the emotional influence of content she knew wasn't necessarily real.
Different experiences. Different conclusions.
And all equally valuable contributions to the conversation.
Because education, to me, isn't simply about teaching children what to think.
It's about helping them discover how they think.
How do I know what I believe?
Where did that belief come from?
Is what I'm seeing actually true?
How does this experience make me feel?
Can I listen to someone who sees things differently?
And can I confidently express my own perspective?
These are the conversations I want more young people to have.
Perhaps we need to ask better questions
Rather than simply asking young people whether they think social media should be banned, perhaps we could ask:
When does social media make you feel connected, and when does it make you feel disconnected?
How do you recognise when something online is affecting your mood or confidence?
What do adults misunderstand about growing up in a digital world?
What would help you feel safer, more confident and more in control of your online experiences?
I suspect we'd learn an awful lot if we listened carefully to the answers.
And perhaps we'd discover that the conversation is far more nuanced than we first imagined.
Our young people have something to say. Are we making enough space to listen?
One of my favourite things about working with children and teenagers is that they constantly challenge my own thinking.
I might arrive at a session with a carefully considered activity or discussion planned, only for a student to offer an observation that takes the entire conversation somewhere far more interesting.
And I love that.
Because education should never be a one-way conversation.
Children aren't simply adults-in-training, waiting until they're old enough for their opinions to matter.
They are already thinking, questioning, feeling, observing and making sense of the world around them.
Sometimes they just need someone to ask.
And then actually listen.
Yesterday, a group of young women at MultiRay had the opportunity to share their experiences as part of an international conversation about Australia's social media ban.
They represented themselves with such confidence, thoughtfulness and maturity.
And I couldn't have been prouder.
I'm looking forward to seeing the French interview, although I may need to brush up on my French first! 🇫🇷
And if any Australian journalists are interested in hearing from young people about social media, education, wellbeing or what it's actually like growing up today, I know a wonderfully insightful group of young women who have plenty to say.
Perhaps the most important thing we can do for the next generation isn't simply to give them a voice. It's to recognise that they already have one.
We just need to make more space to hear it.