Australia’s Social Media Ban for minors under 16 years old (March 2026)
The latest 2026 issue (Vol. 14, No. 1) of the Journal of telecommunications And the Digital Economy was published on 31 March 2026.
Many of the articles are subject to a paywall for non-subscribers and will not become open access for 12 months in line with the Journal’s policy. However, there are two articles written by current and former Incyte Consulting authors that are open access from the outset and to which general readers are referred.
The first is the editorial, written by Jim Holmes and Leith Campbell, Deputy Editor-in-Chief and Editor-in-Chief respectively of the Journal. Jim Holmes is also a Director of Incyte Consulting. The editorial examines the response to the Australian Government’s scheme under which accounts with scheduled social media platforms, such as Instagram, Dacebook, X (formerly Twitter) and others, have been banned. The scheme has been in place since 10 December 2025 – so, for under four months – but has excited considerable interest in Australia and around the world. The responsibility for vetting applications for accounts to ensure compliance with age requirements has been placed squarely on the social media platforms themselves. Responses and initial judgments to date are divided, but the scheme has a long way to go before being subject to more formal review and assessment. See https://jtde.telsoc.org/index.php/jtde/article/view/1473/837.
The second article is a book review by David Rogerson, Director of Incyte Consulting, of a new book by Rohit Prasad and V Sridhar, 5G and Beyond: Rewiring Telecom Regulation (2026). The book contains proposals for an overall re-examination of the global approach to telecom regulation, and contains interesting new approaches to the subject. David’s review is entitled, Warning – Digital Transformation Ahead, and is equally interesting. See https://mail.jtde.telsoc.org/index.php/jtde/article/view/1440/835.
The Journal is published by the Telecommunications Association (TelSoc), a not-for-profit learned society which has been operating under various names since 1874. The Journal has been continuously published in one form or another since 1935. Published articles are subject to a rigorous peer review process. For more information on TelSoc, including an alternative means to access recent issues of the Journal, go to the TelSoc website, https://telsoc.org.
Most jurisdictions are now reviewing at least some aspects of their legal and regulatory frameworks for telecommunications and related sectors, and considering their responses to the challenges of new and emerging technologies and issues. Some are doing this holistically, and some on a piecemeal basis.