TL;DR: Teens Talk TV Over TikTok, 71% Want Bans, Australia Acts Dec 10

In this week's Plugged In by Wired Parents, If you think your teenager's entire social life revolves around TikTok, new data says otherwise: 53% discuss TV shows with friends MORE than social media content.

This week, we're breaking down why 71% of adults globally now support social media bans (even skeptical Germany jumped 13 points in one year), why Australia's under-16 ban takes effect in just 5 weeks, and what it all means for parents trying to stay connected with their teens. Plus: a quiet but important Android parental control update you should know about.

Here's what parents need to know.

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You assume it's all TikTok but actually the data says otherwise.

New survey of 1,500 adolescents finds 53% discuss TV programmes and films with friends MORE than social media content.

What they're watching and discussing: Traditional media hasn't lost ground. Teenagers bond over shared viewing—programmes, films, series they watch together or discuss afterwards. This creates friend group conversations that social media posts don't.

What they want more of: When asked what media they want to see more of, "people with lives like my own" ranked #1. Nearly 60% want content focused on friendships rather than romance. They're actively seeking authentic, realistic portrayals—the opposite of curated social media.

Why this matters if you feel shut out: Your teenager bonds with friends over content you can access. You don't need to understand TikTok trends to discuss a programme they're watching.

What works for communication:

The takeaway: More than half of teenagers talk about traditional media MORE than social media with friends. If you're focused entirely on social media, you're missing the majority of what they discuss. Shared viewing creates conversation opportunities that don't require interrogation.

Sources: Benton.org

Between 2024 and 2025, something shifted in how adults worldwide think about children and social media. The change wasn't subtle.

When Ipsos surveyed over 23,000 adults across 30 countries in mid-2025, asking whether children under 14 should be banned from social media, 71% said yes. But the real story isn't in that headline number—it's in how dramatically opinion moved in just 12 months.

The most striking change came from the least likely place: Germany showed the biggest increase of any country surveyed—jumping 13 percentage points in a single year.

This is remarkable for several reasons. Germany now sits at 53% support for social media bans—still the lowest of any country tracked. But that means Germany went from roughly 40% support to 53% in just one year. In a country typically protective of both privacy rights and sceptical of tech regulation, this represents a dramatic shift in thinking.

When even the most resistant population moves this decisively towards restrictions, it signals something more than a passing trend. It suggests the concerns driving this movement are powerful enough to overcome deep-seated cultural resistance.

Japan wasn't far behind, with support jumping 11 percentage points to reach 63%.

Japan has a unique relationship with technology and childhood—the country already has strict gaming regulations and cultural norms around screen time. Yet something between 2024 and 2025 accelerated Japanese concern about social media specifically. The country's large increase suggests this isn't just a Western phenomenon driven by Silicon Valley platforms. The concerns are resonating across vastly different cultural contexts.

Perhaps most telling: countries that already had strong majorities supporting bans saw their numbers climb even higher.

France, already at a high baseline, added 8 points to reach 85%—moving from strong majority to near-universal consensus. Australia, which actually implemented an under-16 ban in late 2024, grew 9 points to 79%. Brazil jumped 9 points to 69%.

This pattern is significant. When you're already at 77% support (France in 2024), gaining another 8 points is hard—you're running out of persuadable people. Yet it happened anyway. Support isn't plateauing; it's accelerating.

Every country tracked in the survey showed increased support for bans—except one.

India declined 5 percentage points, dropping to 68% support. India is the outlier that proves this isn't a universal human reaction to social media. Culture, economic context, and national circumstances clearly matter.

Several factors might explain India's unique trajectory:

Whatever the cause, India's decline highlights that whilst the global trend is clear, it's not inevitable everywhere.

Several forces likely converged to drive this shift:

More research on mental health impacts, particularly studies showing effects on girls' sleep patterns and wellbeing, gave concerned parents scientific backing for their instincts.

High-profile incidents continued to make headlines—sextortion cases, suicides linked to cyberbullying, exposés on platform algorithms. Indonesia's discovery of over 5 million pieces of child pornography content since 2020 represents just one example of documented harms that shifted public opinion.

Australia's bold move in late 2024 to ban social media for under-16s made restrictions seem possible and legitimate. When a major democracy acts, others take notice.

Parental exhaustion reached a tipping point. The first generation of children to grow up entirely post-smartphone are now in their teenage years. Parents have spent years trying to manage screen time, harmful content, and social pressures—often feeling they're fighting losing battles against billion-dollar companies with teams of behavioural psychologists designing for engagement.

Platform scandals kept coming—revelations about algorithmic harm, data practices, and the gap between companies' public safety promises and internal research.

Australia's data is particularly interesting: 79% support, up 9 points—and the country actually implemented a ban. This suggests a reinforcing cycle: public concern drives policy action, which legitimises the concern and drives support even higher.

Denmark appears to be entering the same cycle. With 85% French support and Denmark's Prime Minister calling platforms "childhood thieves," momentum builds.

This isn't a moment of panic—it's sustained momentum building over years and accelerating.

When Germany jumps 13 points, when Japan surges 11, when France at 85% somehow climbs higher, when even the United States—home to these tech platforms—reaches 63% support (up 6 points), the direction is clear.

The global average of 71% support represents more than a strong majority. Combined with the year-over-year increases across nearly every country, it represents a fundamental shift in how adults view children's relationship with social media.

But here's the tension: most of these countries haven't acted on this opinion. Australia has. Indonesia is drafting regulations. Denmark is proposing legislation. But in Japan, the US, the UK, Brazil, and most other countries, that 60-80% support hasn't translated into policy.

The question for the next 12 months isn't whether support will continue growing—the trend suggests it will. The question is whether more countries follow Australia's lead, or whether this becomes the story of the most popular policy that doesn't exist.

One thing is certain: whatever happened between 2024 and 2025 to shift millions of adults towards supporting restrictions isn't reversing. The momentum is building, not breaking.

Source: Visual Capitalist

Google's November 2025 System Update (Google Play Services v25.43) brings improved Parent-managed contacts and School Time features for Android devices. If you've set up supervised accounts for your children, managing those accounts should feel smoother now, with supervision tools that are easier to navigate.

The update is rolling out now to Android phones, though it can take Google days, weeks, or months to fully launch features to all users.

What this means for parents:

If your child uses an Android device with a supervised account (set up through Google Family Link), you may notice improvements in how you manage their contacts and School Time settings. The changes are designed to save time when adjusting parental controls on the go.

What to do:

If you haven't set up a supervised account for your child's Android device yet, you can do so through the Google Family Link app (available for both Android and iOS). This allows you to manage screen time, approve apps, and control who your child can contact.

Sources: Android Headlines

For more articles from the week, head over to Wired-Parents.com

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