Australia is the first country in the world to enact
a law banning the use of social media by people under the age of 16. It has been reported that Finland is also considering imitating this social media ban.
Finland looks to end ‘uncontrolled human experiment’ with Australia-style ban on social media | Yle News | Yle
https://yle.fi/a/74-20207494
At FISTA, an international school in Tampere , Finland, children from first to ninth grade, aged six to 16, run, play soccer, and basketball in the schoolyard during lunch break, but there’s not a single sign of a cell phone.
This is because FISTA is taking advantage of the law that bans the use of cell phones in schools, which came into effect in August 2025. This law allows schools to limit or completely ban the use of cell phones during school hours. FISTA completely prohibits the use of cell phones for any purpose other than learning in the classroom.
‘We’ve found that reducing students’ cell phone use during recess, for example, significantly stimulates their creativity,’ said Antti Koivisto, vice principal at FISTA.
Restrictions on mobile phone use in schools are widely seen as effective in Finland, and the Finnish government is looking to go further by banning social media.
In early January 2026, Finnish Prime Minister
Petteri Orpo stated that he supported banning social media use by children under the age of 15. At the time, Orpo also stated that he was ‘deeply concerned about the fact that physical inactivity among children and young people is increasing.’
Support for banning social media use is growing in Finland, with two-thirds of respondents in a Hintaopas poll saying they support banning social media use by people under the age of 15. This is an increase of nearly 10 percentage points since a similar poll was conducted in the summer of 2025.
Silja Kosola, a researcher into the impact of social media on young people, said: ‘Social media use has led to an increase in self-harm, especially eating disorders, among children. There is also a huge gap in values between young girls and boys, which is also a major social issue.’
Kosola also points out that certain aspects of Finnish culture, such as the independence and freedom given to children from an early age, may inadvertently exacerbate the negative effects of social media use.
‘Our schools distribute smartphones to more young people than anywhere else in the world. Just a few years ago, around 95 percent of first graders had their own smartphones, something not seen in any other country,’ Kosola said.
Australia enacted the Under 16 Social Media Ban Act in December 2025, which will prevent children under the age of 16 from using social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Under the law, social media companies will be subject to fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars (approximately 5.3 billion yen) if they consistently fail to exclude children from their platforms.
It’s only been about six weeks since Australia’s ‘social media ban for under-16s’ came into effect at the time of writing, but ABC’s chief digital and political reporter Claire Armstrong said, ‘The early signs are good.’
Armstrong warns Finland, which is trying to copy Australia’s ‘social media ban for under-16s,’ that ‘you can have a very good law, but if people don’t understand it and can’t easily enforce it at the household level, the law is going to fail.’
Seona Candy, an Australian living in Finland, warned against Finland implementing an Australian-style social media ban. ‘I think the Finnish government should seriously invest in digital education and literacy and teach children about digital safety. Finland is world-renowned for its education and media literacy. We should use our strengths to our advantage,’ she said.