Would social media ban for children work here? Australia offers lessons. - Harvard Gazette

Australia’s under-16 social media ban shows low early compliance, with about 75% of 14- to 15-year-olds not following the rule. Many noncompliers face no penalties and receive no rewards, making the ban feel irrelevant. Noncompliance can also reduce the risk of social exclusion because most peers are not complying. Adhering can lead to being socially out of the loop, while violators avoid that stigma. Noncompliance may signal membership in an “uncool” group, which people try to avoid, but the overall lack of enforcement and incentives still drives widespread violation. Compliance may improve with incentive-based and norm-shifting approaches.

"So, from the standpoint of a 14- or 15-year-old, this may be background noise. Another reason they don't comply is that there's potential exclusion from a group because most people are not complying. The third is that non-compliers give a certain signal that they're part of the uncool group, and that's not what people want to give."

Read at Harvard Gazette