The biggest talking point among teenagers this week is the under-16 social media ban in Australia. From December 10, the southern continent has banned those aged under 16 years from using major social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, Threads and X (formerly known as Twitter).
The ban is being watched closely around the world by lawmakers, parents and students who are divided on the issue.
Addicts Anonymous
No one, but no one, denies how addictive social media is. “Instagram is how I stay connected with friends, share memes and unwind after school but I also lose hours scrolling mindlessly instead of doing things I used to enjoy,” says Saptaparno Nayak, a teenager from DPS Newtown. “These apps are designed to keep us hooked and it makes me question how much control we really have over our own time.”
Another 15-year-old from BA Block says she returns to social media every now and then due to her fear of missing out (FOMO). “Even when I don’t feel like scrolling, there’s this pressure to stay updated. If the ban ever extends to India, it will reduce that stress and make life feel less rushed,” she said, asking not to be named.
“When I first installed Instagram, my screen time shot up as I got hooked to scrolling through reels. But with board exams coming up, I uninstalled most social media apps on my own,” said Srestha Talukdar, a Class XII student at DPS Newtown. “I won’t mind social media ban as it might improve our attention span. I’ve already started reading books again, and can feel myself concentrating better without constant distractions.”
Needless ban
Devansh Bose, a 14-year-old from DPS Newtown, feels the ban will not be effective. “Students will find ways around it,” says the boy who, ironically, found out about the Australian ban through social media. “I think it would be an addiction if someone spends over four hours on the phone and none of my friends do so. We are in control of the apps and not the other way round.”
Many of his age believe so. “I carry the phone to school and keep it in my bag sometimes. I mostly listen to music on my earpods when I am bored in the car or bus,” says Adhyayan Moulik, a Class VIII of Bangur Avenue.
Aryaman Bhattacharya doesn’t carry any phones to school. “I don’t feel the need to. But I do like to watch football on it when I’m home. I also use the phone for projects. It all depends on how judiciously one can use resources,” says the boy, also a resident of Bangur Avenue.
But teens who get a taste of medium tend to carry it into adulthood. Debasmita Dutta has been an avid smartphone user since her student days and the habit continues now that she works in a New Town office. “Every three or four months, I find myself spending more than six hours a day on social media and have to uninstall my accounts. I’ve done it countless times,” she says.
“Reels will see the end of us,” Debasmita adds, referring to videos that are up to 180 seconds long. “I used to be a voracious reader but now I pat myself on the back if I’m able to read even one page without checking my phone. Even if I watch a movie or a web series I feel the urge to check WhatsApp or Instagram. Reels have affected attention spans such that I find it a bother watching anything longer than two minutes.”
It’s the same complaint among her friends. “Sometimes I use time tracker or blocker apps, where access to Instagram gets blocked after say, 30 minutes of use a day. Or I keep the phone out of my own reach. When I do log in, I start by telling myself I’ll scroll for just five minutes but an hour flies by without realising. And it’s not restricted to youths. My parents (who live in CA Block) often scroll away while speaking to me too and I have to tell them to put their phones away,” she says.
The worst part is that the reels don’t add much value to her life. “Rarely are they informative; most are just a waste of time that keep me from doing something productive, like going for a walk,” Debasmita rounds off.
Schools on board
Phones are banned for students in most schools but then the schools have apps in which notices are posted. “So even if I stop my son from using the phone, he will genuinely need it. If they impose a ban, it has to be a blanket ban on the entire device,” says Sharmistha Ganguly, whose son studies in St. Joan’s School.
A teacher of a school in New Town said on condition of anonymity that some of her younger colleagues had been encouraged by seniors to create fake IDs just so they can keep a tab on what some of the “naughtier” students are up to.
Denial of access to smartphones is leading to symptoms akin to withdrawal, said Satabdi Bhattacharjee, principal of The Newtown School. “Parents report that the children are becoming violent, refusing food or threatening self-harm,” she exclaimed.
Phones are not allowed in school for juniors while senior students are made to deposit them with the coordinator during school hours. “But this regulation, we suspect, is behind the drop in attendance in the middle of the week. Once they sit down with the phone in the morning, they are often unwilling to leave it behind and go to school, promising their parents to study at home instead. But their intention is different,” she said.
Screentime was also playing havoc with their sleeping schedule, she said. “They stay up past 1 or 2am with their phones. How would they get up in time for school and how would the brain get enough rest?”
Legislation would not work unless there is some mechanism for age verification in social media accounts, many residents feel. “Even if India enacts a law, what’s stopping such creative brains from fishing about their age?”
Parental supervision is vital, feels principal Bhattacharjee. “Some students, who are not popular in school, have been found to post reels in revealing dresses just to seek the attention of the opposite sex,” she said.
Another teacher recalled how a girl in Class VII, who was a loner in school but active on social media, was preyed upon by a couple of boys who initially befriended her and then used her face in objectionable photographs, which made her confess to her father. “The situation blew up so badly that the girl was withdrawn from school by her father who did not know how to deal with the situation,” he added.
Surangana Hazra, mother of a 14-year-old, says his teachers conduct surprise checks to see if they are carrying phones. Still, kids hide the phones in the washroom or science labs so that they are not discovered,” who lives near the Owl Junction in New Town.
Rahul Jhunjhunwala, a businessman based in Dum Dum Park, said they reluctantly handed a phone to their daughter. “She needs it when she goes for tuitions and the like. She switches it off when she enters the school. Even if security is our priority, we do understand that the usage of phones needs to be reduced,” he says.
Rehab time
Some users learn, often too late, that mobile addiction is no less harmful than drug addiction. “We used to be a traditional de-addiction centre focusing on drugs and alcohol, but the pandemic forced us to diversify,” says Soumya Baran Paul, founder of the Rajarhat rehab centre Life Revision Foundation.
During the lockdown, everyone turned to the phone as their window to the world and for many, it turned into an addiction. “We started getting so many enquiries that we opened a wing for mobile addiction,” Paul says. Since 2023, they’ve treated about 25 patients, all under 18 years. Most are aged between 14 and 16.
AC Block resident Nikhil Maity runs Sarani Wellness Centre near Santiniketan, that has recently been selected as the district de-addiction centre and so provides treatment for free. “Mobile addiction has broken into all strata of society,” says Maity. “When I’m in a Salt Lake café meeting friends, after the initial exchange of pleasantries, everyone buries their heads into phones. And outside our centre, when I drive along rural roads in the evenings, youths are so absorbed in their phones that they do not even notice my car’s headlights. I have to honk next to their ears to break their trance and make them move out of my way. But this does not necessarily amount to addiction.”
Paul classifies a case as mobile addiction when one’s daily life gets disturbed by it. “Addicts lose sense of priorities. They skip meals, baths, work just so they can continue on the scrolling or playing mobile games. When denied phones, they get restless, violent, cannot sleep, cannot sit or stand for 10 minutes,” he says.
So severe is the addiction that it can take seven to eight months to correct. “And even then, the recovery rate is as low as four per cent. This is because they will be exposed to phones once they return home,” Paul explains. “Drugs like heroin, we can tell patients to stay away from forever, but we cannot do that with phones as it’s needed for work and study,” Paul says.
Maity tries to get patients to use the phone constructively. “Instead of watching reels, we teach them to create reels using professional editing software, instead of playing mobile games, we teach them to develop new games,” he says, citing the case of a 17-year-old boy who was brought to him after being expelled from 17 schools. “The boy did not smoke or drink; his drug was the phone.”
This boy, who was brought from the US, had to be enrolled in a rural school where he would go only to take exams. Tutors would come to the centre to teach him and he finished Class XII with over 80 per cent marks. “Adults are lured by phones too but they already have jobs and responsibilities that are more important,” Maity says. But teens are in their formative years. If they miss out on this time, they have no foundation and no future.”
Additional reporting by Showli Chakraborty, Srijita Talukdar and Sudeshna Banerjee