David Braue, Editor-At-Large for Cybercrime Magazine, joined host Scott Schober in a recent episode on the Cybercrime Magazine Podcast to discuss Australia’s world-first teen social media ban, which went into effect Dec. 10, 2025. Together, they discuss how the ban is sitting with teens and parents across the country, the new rules platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat, must follow, and more.
“Critics will say the social media ban is a toothless tiger because teens are able to easily circumvent the social media ban by scanning their mum’s or dad’s face,” Braue, a Melbourne, Australia-based award-winning technology journalist, posted on LinkedIn.
“But just think about this for a second: now, to get onto social media, TEENS HAVE TO SCAN THEIR MUM’S OR DAD’S FACE, which means said mum or dad at least knows their child wants to get online and can start conversations about what their child is doing and how to deal with what they are likely to find there,” adds Braue.
“Those parents will also be able to know exactly which sites their kids are on, and have some confidence their kids aren’t stumbling around in the Web’s dark corners without any oversight. Given how many parents have no idea what their kids are doing online, even that is a win for the new laws because it lets parents actually parent their kids.”
To put it another way, maybe what’s really happening in Australia is that parents are pentesting their kids. And maybe we should be too?
Listen to the Podcast Episode