Australia banned teen social media. Teens still have access.

Australia did what most democracies talk about but rarely attempt—it passed a law saying children under 16 cannot use social media, with no exceptions, no parental consent workaround, just a flat ban backed by penalties that would make a tech company bleed.

Six months later, almost nothing changed, and instead of forcing a reckoning, everyone's pretending the problem is just incomplete rollout.

The policy didn't say "limit access" or "better parental controls." It said platforms must verify age before allowing entry—not sometimes, not for high-risk features, always, for every single user under 16, at scale, on the internet, where anonymity is the default state and identity is actively concealed.

The sex offender registry seemed obviously necessary once—keep track of people who'd committed violence, let communities know where they lived—but it didn't reduce sexual violence. It created a class of people impossible to employ or house, which made recidivism worse. The policy was logically sound.

Refinement works on problems that are hard but doable with resources. Abandonment is honest on problems that are actually impossible.