News Investigation

Julie Inman Grant: The Woman Tasked with Kicking Australian Kids Off Social Media

Feb 2026 🇦🇺 BBC News

BBC Australia correspondent Katy Watson profiles Julie Inman Grant two months into enforcement of the country's under-16 social media ban, describing the volume of threats her office receives and the personal toll of a role that has made her a target for critics ranging from tech companies to members of the US Congress. Inman Grant defends the ban using a water-safety analogy — teaching children to swim rather than fencing off the ocean entirely — and says delaying access by a few years, paired with digital-literacy education, is worth attempting, even though critics say the policy is unevenly enforceable and may disadvantage rural, disabled, or LGBTQI+ teens who rely on online communities. She also describes her own household, including 13-year-old twins, as a live test case. TechKids Foundation includes this profile for its on-record account of the case for and against the ban from the regulator enforcing it.

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CITATION

Watson, Katy. "Julie Inman Grant: The Woman Tasked with Kicking Australian Kids Off Social Media." BBC News, February 7, 2026. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgyvlgvk43o

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