Albanese says the social media ban is working, but it is too early to say if it has been successful

As the UK government faces pressure to follow suit, evidence on whether the ban is working is still a while away.

More than 4.7m accounts for teens under 16 have been been taken offline by Australia’s social media ban, but that doesn’t mean it’s been successful.

As the UK government faces pressure to follow suit, let’s take a closer look at the facts and figures.

On Friday, the Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said he had measured the success of the ban in three ways: “One is the feedback that we’ve had from parents saying, thank you for doing this, this has made a difference in our household,” he said.

“The second is from young people themselves. There’s a lot of younger people that I’ve spoken to who speak about, ‘gee, we wish that was in place when I was 13 or 14. It’s making a difference to my younger brother or sister’.