Schools, youth organisations, sporting clubs and performing arts studios will tomorrow be re-thinking how they communicate with groups under the age of 16.
From Wednesday, 10 December, social media won’t be an option.
Meta, which owns social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads, began disabling underage profiles yesterday, Thursday, 4 December.
Navigating ‘new’ communication channels or reviving old methods, like SMS and email, has largely been left up to organisations and parents to resolve.
Some in the community have warned that there is a ‘lack of awareness’ about the impending ban and its implications.
Underprepared and lacking guidance
Chief Executive Officer of the Islamic College of Brisbane (ICB), Ali Kadri, said there was a lack of understanding in the community about what the ban would actually mean for under-16s, particularly since the ban will be the law.
“It’s very hard for young people to understand, because there is this perception amongst the young people that they are not impacted by law or they’re too young to follow the law,” Mr Kadri said.
“The second barrier is that young people are a lot more technically skilled than adults are, and in the past, if they were to break a school rule, they’d be given a consequence in school.
“Now they’ll be committing a crime which is more serious, so our strategy next year would be to ensure that we educate our students on the importance of [following] this ban.”
Mr Kadri said he heard some students discuss ways to avoid the ban, but that others were supportive of the new law.
“We just need to communicate it as much as we can and as often as we can.
“The fact that it’s launched during school holidays means that it will be up to the parents for the next couple of months, because schools are not coming back until the end of January.
“I’m not sure how well equipped or informed parents are to be able to educate their children, but I think we need a strong education campaign for parents, schools and other places where young people congregate.”
What strategies are in place?
Mr Kadri said he had not received any guidance or instruction from the government or the education department on how to approach the ban, ensure strong communication channels between staff, parents and students, or educate students on what the ban will mean.
He said ICB uses social media as an “additional communication channel” for parents and students to engage with, but in anticipation of the ban, had been developing their own communication apps for parents and students, which they will use to contact students in case of an emergency.
The apps, which are in production and currently in beta form, will be launched at the beginning of the 2026 school year, Mr Kadri said.
Rekon Youth Foundation, which runs the Wilbur St Youth Centre in Logan Central, director Rolando Pisia said he personally hadn’t had any in-depth discussions about the ban with kids and teenagers who attend the centre.
“It’s been a topic that we haven’t fully explored yet,” he said.
“Some are concerned because a lot of us spend a lot of time online, so there is some confusion about why the ban is happening.
“Others have said it’s a good thing, because the amount of time they spend on the internet does have an impact on them.”
Mr Pisia said Rekon used social media as a tool to communicate with young people who attended the centre and reach others who may not be aware of the services they provide.
“The majority of our promotion and marketing is done through Instagram and Facebook, that’s generally how we promote and market our events,” Ms Pisia said.
“We don’t have a full solution yet.
“We will probably go back to old school communication methods like giving out flyers, having more communication at schools, and the kids who visit us at the centre, we can communicate with them there.”
Reckon staff held a meeting earlier this week to discuss how they would approach the ban, pivot communication methods and support young people through this period of transition.
Mr Pisia said he thought the Wilbur St Youth Centre would see an increase in attendance due to the ban and a decrease in online connections for those under 16.
General manager at Logan Thunder, Mitchell Young, said the basketball organisation was prepared and would be largely unaffected by the social media ban.
“We moved all of our team and player communication to an app called Heja,” Mr Young said.
“So all of our training, scheduling and game communication from Thunder to parents is through the app.
“It’s a really cool child-safe app because it allows all of the chat to be in front of us, and we can export the data as we need.”
The app was introduced as an official communication channel for Logan Thunder a few months ago, but it was not necessarily in response to the under-16s social media ban.
“For us, it was for child protection and child safety versus the social media ban, but I guess they go hand in hand,” he said.
“We just thought it would be a more progressive way to go to streamline communication.
“I don’t think that social media is a tool that should be used for sports team communication anyway.”
Image: Rekon Youth Foundation’s Wilbur St Youth Centre in Logan Central.
