David Werdiger

At a time when technology has invaded our lives, Australia is now running the world’s biggest real-life experiment that seeks to mitigate its effects on our children. What could possibly go wrong? It’s now just over a month since the world’s first social media ban for children launched in Australia. Age-restricted social media platforms (like Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube) must take 'reasonable steps' to prevent under 16s creating or keeping an account. Just a few weeks into the ban, Aussie teens are skirting the rules with ease: two phones, fake birthdays, borrowed accounts Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, in his 2024 book The Anxious Generation, argued that smartphones and social media are ‘rewiring' our children and have led to a rise in mental illness.

I knew two of the people murdered at Bondi Beach. That beach has always felt like Australia distilled: sun-bleached, open, and unserious in the best way. It is where the country goes to exhale. You don’t brace yourself at Bondi Beach. You assume the day will end the way it began. My late father once thought that too. A Holocaust survivor, he arrived in Australia after the war with just a suitcase in his hand and a number on his arm. Australia took him in without interrogation of his past loyalties or beliefs, expecting only that whatever horrors he had fled would not be imported here. He honoured that bargain, worked hard, enjoyed financial success, and gave plenty back. As did so many others who came in those post-second world war waves. That bargain has now frayed.