One size does not fit all for social media bans

With half its population under 18, Nigeria shows why Australia-style digital bans could stifle democratic activism.

Aletana Ajulo,Afeeya Akhand

2 December 20254 min read

Australia’s implementation of a social media ban for under-16s ahead of a December 2025 deadline has attracted worldwide attention. While most other countries have regulatory frameworks relating to social media usage through age limits and requirements for parental consent, Australia’s ban is a world-first.

This raises a question: what would happen if an Australia-style ban was implemented in other countries?

Nigeria makes for a fascinating case study, a country with a massive population of more than 230 million, where there is a growing youth bulge and increasing digital connectedness. The median age in Nigeria is 18.1 years, compared with 30.5 years globally. This makes it crucial to pay attention to the development of digital and media literacy among Nigeria’s youth.

To illustrate the real-world consequences of what happens online, WhatsApp, the most popular social messaging app in Nigeria, contributed to the rapid spread of conspiracy theories and fake cures during Covid-19 and the 2014 Ebola crisis.

Digital spaces are consistently used by Nigerian youth to advocate for change within the country.

The key consideration in any digital information ecosystem is digital literacy, defined as a broad set of competencies surrounding the use of digital media, computers, social media and information and communications technologies. Typically, younger adults have higher digital literacy than older adults. However, when young people cannot discern truth from a lie, the loudest voice will likely determine their thinking. This has widespread negative effects for the development of digital and media literacy in democracies, including Nigeria.

An estimated 107 million individuals use the internet in Nigeria, with around 39 million social media user identities (16.4% of the total population). The sheer number of internet and social media users combined with Nigeria’s young population highlights that lack of digital and media literacy would have adverse outcomes such as widespread mis- and dis-information, more citizens falling prey to online fraudulent activity, as well as distrust in media and political campaigns utilising online platforms.

Within democratic societies, the media is intended to provide accurate information to support citizens in discerning what they consider to be important issues, critically thinking about how they want to vote in elections and participate in civic life. However in Nigeria researchers and advocates argue that the media is failing in its democratic duties due to overreliance on income and sponsorship from the state, political patronage and ineffective regulatory mechanisms. All of these factors can limit the development of digital and media literacy in the Nigerian population, particularly among young people.

A social media ban may not necessarily improve the discourse. It could instead push young people to seek information from dubious and unverified sources, counterproductively contributing to young people increasingly relying on word-of-mouth or messaging apps. The threat of mis- and dis-information wouldn’t disappear.

The #endsars campaign in Nigeria (Tope. A Asokere/Unsplash)

The #EndSARS campaign in Nigeria protests police brutality committed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (Tope. A Asokere/Unsplash)

Reliance on propagandistic sources by Nigerian teens is also a challenge that would be accentuated by a social media ban. The country’s major national state broadcaster is the government-owned Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), which has stations in every state capital. NTA has been the subject of significant criticism. Multiple academic studies question the credibility of NTA’s reporting due to political interference from the government and politicians. Such a structure results in coverage that favours ruling parties, especially during election cycles.

Digital spaces are consistently used by Nigerian youth to advocate for change within the country. Removing this opportunity via a social media ban would hinder civic engagement and activism. For example, the #EndSARS movement, launched in 2017, called for an end to police brutality committed by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a unit created in the early 1990s to stamp out problems of theft but which transformed into its own source of tensions. The #EndSARS campaign saw a surge in 2020 when large numbers of people shared photos and videos of SARS officers abusing their victims online. In a matter of days, the movement led to nationwide protests – a clear example of the power of an online political movement.

More recently, #JusticeforOchanya has been trending online to reignite calls for justice for the rape and murder of a young Nigerian girl in 2018. In just three weeks, the online petition for this case, which calls for the justice system to reopen the case and charge the alleged abuser, has received nearly 210,000 signatures.

While the consequences of the under-16s social media ban in Australia will only become evident in the coming months and decades, it’s already evident that the approach won’t apply everywhere. If countries with significant youth bulges like Nigeria were to emulate this model, such actions could in fact stifle civic engagement and advocacy among the youth.

About the authors

Aletana Ajulo

Aletana Ajulo is a project research officer at the Australian Human Rights Commission.

Afeeya Akhand

Afeeya Akhand is an emerging associate at the ANU National Security College.

Topics

Australia Africa Cyber & technology