The question to me is, not how will Aussie teens fare without social media, but rather will they fare better using social media through the inevitable workarounds compared to using the mainstream platforms that are now banned? Sometimes pushing networks underground results in greater danger and unintended consequences.

We banned drugs a hundred years ago but they're still universally available and have gotten stronger and cheaper. Plus, impure drugs and black market violence leads to scores of avoidable deaths. We waged war on file sharing but I can still download anything under the sun with ease. And the increasingly clever and hardened networks that enable that also enable the sharing of vile materials. And we know that trying to suppress sex not only fails but results in unintended pregnancies and the spread of disease.

It will be very interesting to see how young people adapt. But whatever the outcome, it's bound to involve fewer guardrails, less monitoring and less accountability than we see with the startups and megacorps that young people rely on today.