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Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson · Friday, August 28, 2026

Andrew Sharp Remains Skeptical of Meta Settlement's Impact, Cites Australian Social Media Ban

Andrew Sharp is taking a wait-and-see approach to the Meta settlement, pointing to Australia's ban on social media for children under 16 as a cautionary tale. Early results from Australia suggest that children found ways to circumvent the ban, with minimal change in platform usage.

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The tape

2 quotes
“Australia banned social media for kids under 16. And the early returns on that experiment are not great because basically kids have found ways to work around the ban.”
Andrew Sharp
“So I'm taking a wait and see approach in terms of what this actually means and how teens will use meta platforms.”
Andrew Sharp
Heard on Sharp Tech with Ben Thompson — “(Preview) Meta’s New Restrictions for Teens, Nvidia’s Open Source Investments, Q&A on Netflix, Druckenmiller, Parameters and Performance”, published Friday, August 28, 2026. Heardvine summarizes and quotes with attribution and timestamps, and links to the original everywhere.
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Andrew Sharp Remains Skeptical of Meta Settlement's Impact, Cites Australian Social Media Ban — Heardvine