In November 2024 Prime Minister Anthony Albanese stood before the Australian people and delivered this message: ‘We want Australian children to have a childhood’. He was, of course, announcing the decision to legislate a social media ban for anyone under the age of 16.
Getting the bill passed, like all things in politics, was a slow-burn, but it arguably would never have happened without the tireless support of Michael ‘Wippa’ Wipfli and Finch CEO Rob Galluzzo.
Wipfli – otherwise known as one half of Nova 969‘s breakfast show Fitzy and Wippa – first became interested in the idea of a social media ban while thinking about his oldest son, Ted.
“I just had this image in my mind of my oldest sitting in the corner of the room, which he does, in a chair with his head down, looking at a screen,” Wipfli told Mediaweek. “And I can’t control it, and I don’t know the impact it’s having on him, and that scared the hell out of me.”
Ryan Fitzgerald, Kate Ritchie and Michael Wipfli.
The broadcaster says he was inspired to “do something” because he “was in a position where we could open the right doors and have the right conversations”.
It was around this time that Wipfli says stories about the negative impact of social media on children began making headlines. He says that after chatting with Galluzzo, the pair started considering what Wipfli called an “impossible hypothetical” at the time.
“We thought, would it be possible to ban social media for kids under the age of 16?” he said. Soon, there was movement regarding the idea in the political sphere prompting the pair to “pull the trigger on trying to share the message and get it out there for some type of reform.”
The pair went on to launch the movement 36 Months – the figure referring to the time between the ages of 13 and 16. An online petition was launched amassing more than 127,000 signatures in less than six months.
Riding high on the wave of public support for the cause, Wipfli and Galluzzo took their campaign to Canberra, bringing with them grieving families who have been impacted by social media, including Mat and Kelly O’Brien.
Their 12-year-old daughter Charlotte took her own life after allegedly being bullied at school.
Charlotte O’Brien, who was just 12 years old when she took her own life.
“You know, it was hard to hear these parents blame themselves,” he said. “But the other danger that was extremely confronting to hear was the roller coaster of how their kids were happy one minute, and then, because of the social media impact, they were in another world the next.”
With the ban not set to be rolled out until at least the end of the year, the question now turns to how exactly tech giants plan to enforce the new guidelines.
But for Wipfli, that’s not an issue parents should concern themselves with.
“The reliance can’t be on the child or the parents,” he said. “The technology is there – so we need to be putting the pressure back on the platform to find a solution.”
As for any advertisers or brands who may take umbrage with the ban and prospective loss of audience, Wipfli is instead urging them to “take a stand”. “This isn’t an issue where you need to decide whether or not it’s a good or a bad thing – it’s a bad thing,” he said.
In the meantime, Wipfli and Galluzzo have gone on to launch a podcast exploring the origin of 36 Months and the journey they went on to make it law.
But that’s not all.
“The podcast is more than a conversation about social media,” Wipfli said. “It’s a conversation about parenting, trends, and what we experience on a day-to-day basis as parent.”
The monthly podcast is available now.