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A grand social media experiment begins in Australia

James Tomlinson, 9, plays a game on a phone in Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 13, 2025. Australia is barring children under 16 from social media, with a sweeping federal law that is one of the first attempts at a nationwide regulation. (Matthew Abbott /The New York Times)
James Tomlinson, 9, plays a game on a phone in Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 13, 2025. Australia is barring children under 16 from social media, with a sweeping federal law that is one of the first attempts at a nationwide regulation. (Matthew Abbott /The New York Times) James Tomlinson, 9, plays a game on a phone in Melbourne, Australia, Nov. 13, 2025. Australia is barring children under 16 from social media, with a sweeping federal law that is one of the first attempts at a nationwide regulation. (Matthew Abbott /The New York Times)

By Victoria Kim / New York Times News Service 9 min read

MELBOURNE, Australia — Darcey Pritchard, 15, deleted Snapchat off her phone about a year ago when she felt sucked in by its algorithm.

Her friend Luca Hagop, also 15, recently spent more than 34 hours on Instagram in one week, sharing pet videos and other reels “so random, they’re funny because they’re so unfunny.”

Amelie Tomlinson, 14, keeps up with her friends on Snapchat, and until recently, had almost no one’s phone number.

Her friend Jasmine Bentley, 15, is not allowed on any social media but dreams of being a content creator.

The two sets of friends, living in the eastern suburbs of Melbourne, Australia, offer a small window into the wildly different relationships today’s teens have with social media. But they are united on one front: They do not think a new Australian law that bars children under 16 from having social media accounts, which takes effect Wednesday, will change their lives much.