Fears social media ban will strip kids with disability of 'lifeline' (2025)

For people with a disability, social media can be a lifeline.

For the neurodivergent, people with sensory challenges and the immunocompromised, it can be a safe and manageable way to stay in touch with the world and connect with people who understand your experience.

In November, the Senate inquiry into the federal government's ban on social media for children under 16 received about 15,000 submissions, including one signed by nine disability groups concerned about how a ban would affect the lives of people with a disability.

They argued that a social media ban risked isolating young people with a disability by depriving them of a "lifeline" that allowed them to connect with peers.

The ban is due to come into effect by December this year.

Maddison Thompson is a participant at a branch of disability support service Yooralla based in the eastern Victorian town of Leongatha.

She said she regularly used social media to contact friends from Yooralla and elsewhere.

"I use Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat every day," she said.

Ms Thompson said it was easier for her to talk to people and introduce herself online than in person.

She said it would have been harder for her as a teenager to make friends without access to social media.

Not enough scrutiny

Stephanie Travers is board secretary at People with Disability Australia (PWDA) and lives with spina bifida.

Her organisation is one of the nine which made the submission to the Senate inquiry.

She said when the idea of the ban was first floated, the disability community had flagged concerns about how it would be implemented and the possible impacts that people with disability would feel.

Ms Travers said she was concerned there had been a lack of consultation with the disability community.

"There just was not enough time to consult with government about the adverse consequences to isolating people with a disability further and putting these restrictions on them," she said.

The organisation wants to see the implementation of the ban co-designed with Australia's disability community.

"We're very much nothing about us without us, and we want to make sure these age verification and ID requirements are co-tested with our community because we know that identification is an issue for people with disability in general," Ms Travers said.

PWDA said it believed a duty of care placed on social media platforms themselves would ensure user safety for everyone, not just the disability community.

'Their only community'

RMIT Social Equity Research Centre associate director Kathryn Daley said social media was an inclusive place for some people with health concerns, extreme social anxiety, or who were neurodivergent.

"For some groups of vulnerable young people, that's their only community," she said.

Dr Daley said she was worried that the ban would not stop young people from accessing social media, but would push them into an unregulated, unmonitored environment that could be even more dangerous.

But she said worries about online safety, like those cited by the government, were valid.

"It's an absolute risk," she said.

"Children and young people are always vulnerable to being taken advantage of in any setting, and children and young people with a disability, even more so.