Remember when "scrolling" meant looking through a photo album?

Somewhere between then and now, the world got a little bit... addicted. And Australia finally said enough is enough — last December, anyone under 16 got the boot from social media. Just like that.

And honestly? Hard to argue with.

Think about what kids used to do. They'd disappear outside after school and come back when the streetlights flickered on — dirty, tired and happy. Nobody knew exactly where they were. Mum wasn't worried because the whole neighbourhood was basically one big babysitter. Kids were bored sometimes, and that boredom? That was actually where creativity lived.

Now? A 10 year old can tell you everything about a Minecraft YouTuber's personal life but hasn't looked up from a screen long enough to notice the sky change colour at sunset.

The research isn't great either. Studies have linked heavy social media use in children to increased anxiety, depression, poor sleep and a distorted sense of self-worth — all before they've even finished primary school. That's not a small thing.

The internet itself isn't the villain. A kid in a remote community on Groote Eylandt can now access the same information as a kid in Sydney. They can learn to code, discover their culture through digital archives, watch how-to videos, connect with other First Nations young people across the country. That's genuinely powerful stuff. The internet opened doors that didn't exist for previous generations — and that matters.

The problem was never really the internet. It was handing a poker machine to a nine year old and being surprised they couldn't stop pulling the lever.

And to be fair, adults haven't cracked it either.

We all know someone (maybe that someone is us) who picked up the phone to check the time and resurfaced 45 minutes later having watched seventeen cat videos, a cooking hack they'll never use, and a very intense argument between strangers about pineapple on pizza.

No judgement. Truly. None.

The difference is adults — theoretically — have the brain development to choose differently. Kids don't yet. Their brains are still being wired, and handing them an algorithm designed by the smartest engineers in the world to keep them hooked... well, that's not exactly a fair fight.

So maybe the ban is less about the internet being bad, and more about buying kids a little time. Time to be bored. Time to look up. Time to figure out who they are before the internet tells them who they should be.