Reddit sued Australia’s government over the country’s social media ban. Canberra enacted the world’s first social media age limit this week, blocking all under-16s’ accounts.
Reddit said that the law breached Australia’s constitution, which establishes freedom of political communication; a separate lawsuit from two Australian teens argues the same.
Other countries are watching Australia with great interest — partly to see if the lawsuits are successful, but also to see if the ban has the desired effect of safeguarding mental health.
Previous legal efforts, for example South Korean and Chinese laws banning video games at night, were found to be flops. Australia’s ban is a “natural experiment,” researchers wrote in Nature, and should be carefully observed.