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12 June 2026, SUN EXTRA - Social media case study. Social media ban. Six months in, is it working? Lara is a high school student who was kicked off social media.  Photo: Ruby Alexander.

Australia banned under-16s from social media. The world is split on whether to follow

No platform has been fined and the rift between regulator and minister is in the open. How are our world-first social media laws faring?

  • David Swan and Bronte Gossling

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The idea is simple: You make a handful of items, swap them with others, and make new connections.

The mother of Australia’s viral (and wholesome) homemaker swaps

Two years ago Kaya invited Sunshine Coast creators to meet and swap goods for free. Now, women all around the country are doing the same every weekend.

  • Brittney Deguara
Hugh Laurie with the cast of House (from left) Omar Epps, Jennifer Morrison, Robert Sean Leonard, Jesse Spencer and Lisa Edelstein.

Hugh Laurie’s ‘slightly drunk’ tweets were right. House is still great TV

The actor has apologised to a journalist who criticised the old medical drama. But I am not so quick to lay down arms.

  • Alistair Baldwin
Apple chief executive Tim Cook at the annual World Wide Developers Conference.

Apple credits Australia’s teen social media ban for its new controls

Apple chief executive Tim Cook told Anthony Albanese the iPhone maker’s new child-safety tools were “in part inspired” by the world-first social media ban.

  • David Swan
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant has expressed reservations about the social media ban for under-16s pushed by Minister for Communications Anika Wells.

‘Very blunt approach’: eSafety commissioner questions social media ban

Outspoken comments by the bureaucrat in charge of implementing the federal government’s ban have stirred up opposition to the scheme.

  • Jacqueline Maley and David Swan
Thomas Sewell’s mansion home.

Rich mates, secret mansions: Australia’s millionaire Nazi-backers revealed

Neo-Nazi Thomas Sewell is living in a secret multimillion-dollar compound in Melbourne’s far north-east “gifted” to him by one of the wealthy backers helping Australia’s neo-Nazis plot their next move into politics.

  • Sherryn Groch
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Councillor Andrew Thaler leaves the NSW Industrial Relations Commission on Tuesday.

‘Idiot’, ‘monster’, ‘witch’: Serial pest Andrew Thaler’s latest day in court did not go well

To most people, a three-hour grilling before the NSW Industrial Relations Commission would be something to fear. Not so for a sweary, problematic councillor.

  • Bevan Shields
Julie Inman Grant at lunch.

‘I was not really keen on it’: eSafety commissioner tells us what she really thinks of the social media ban

Julie Inman Grant talks about death threats, the dark corners of the internet and making an enemy of the richest man in the world, Elon Musk.

  • Jacqueline Maley
Ed Coper argues that social media, algorithms skew content to new extremes.

Algorithms are feeding you this toxic emotion every day – are you hooked?

Communications expert Ed Coper’s new book says yes, though his solutions might be a bit too optimistic for the average scroller.

  • Flynn Benson

Meet Albo, the high-vis, small-biz raider – and other deepfakes

If you want to “catch fire on the internet”, don’t let the facts get in the way of the story. That’s the sad lesson of a post-budget onslaught of memes.

  • Jacqueline Maley