Australia's social media ban leaves a 15-year-old worried about losing touch with friends

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Riley Allen, a 15-year-old schoolboy living on an Outback sheep ranch, doesn’t know how he’ll keep in touch with his circle of far-flung friends once Australia's world-first social media ban takes effect on Wednesday.

Riley’s family lives 5 kilometers (3 miles) from Wudinna, a community of just over 1,000 in South Australia state. But some of his school friends live as far as 70 kilometers (43 miles) away.

“I don’t think the impact will be very positive for us. We don’t have a lot out here to get in contact with each other,” Riley said.

“I’m not sure how we’re going to keep in touch over the holidays with each other,” he said, referring to the Southern Hemisphere summer break that starts on Thursday.

Riley and others younger than 16 will be banned by law from holding accounts with Facebook, Instagram, Kick, Reddit, Snapchat, Threads, TikTok, X, YouTube and Twitch from Wednesday. The platforms face fines of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32.9 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to remove the accounts.

Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, was the first tech giant to react, beginning to exclude suspected young children from last week.

Riley holds accounts with most of the age-restricted platforms and had been asked by some to verify that he is at least 16. But by Monday, he had not been ousted by any.

Riley’s schoolteacher mother, Sonia Allen, said she wouldn’t help her son get around the ban, but suspects other parents will.

“I wouldn’t. I do know there are other people that would. If the rule is there, the rule is there. But I know what kids are like, and I’ve been a kid before, and they’re going to get around it if they can,” she said.

While the law allows parents no discretion to allow their children to hold social media accounts, Allen said there was a role for parents in regulating their children’s social media use.

A year ago, she banned Riley from social media for several weeks.

“In the past with Riley, we’ve had to take measures to limit his usage because we found him on social media at midnight and he wasn’t getting his homework done and things like that. We ended up taking it off him for a couple of months,” Allen said. “From that, he’s learned to use it a more responsibly.”

Riley, who turns 16 in April, said he understood the ban’s objectives, but there are other ways to achieve them. He suggested a 10 p.m. enforced social media curfew for young children to prevent them losing sleep.

Riley has an ally in Australia’s largest city, Sydney: schoolboy Noah Jones, who turns 16 in August.

Noah is one of two 15-year-old plaintiffs in a constitutional challenge to the law in the High Court. The other in the case brought by the Sydney-based rights group Digital Freedom Project is schoolgirl Macy Neyland.

They claim the law improperly robs 2.6 million young Australians of a right to freedom of political communication implied in Australia’s constitution.

The Australian government is committed to defeating the challenge on behalf of what they say is an overwhelming majority of parents who demand government action against social media harms.

Many restricted children have told media they welcome their exclusion from platforms with design features that encourage them to spend more time on screens while also serving up content that can harm their health and well-being.

The parents’ group Heaps Up Alliance, which lobbied for the social media age restriction, backs the theory behind the blanket ban that “when everybody misses out, nobody misses out.”

Before Parliament passed the ban last year, more than 140 Australian and international academics with expertise in fields related to technology and child welfare signed an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese opposing a social media age limit as “too blunt an instrument to address risks effectively.”

Noah said the ban would lead to young Australians swapping from age-restricted platforms to more dangerous, less regulated options.

“I’m against this social media ban because as young Australians, we’ll be completely silenced and cut off from our country and the rest of the world,” Noah said. “We’ve just grown up with this our entire lives, and now it's just being taken away from us all of a sudden. We wouldn’t even know what else we could do.”

His mother, Renee Jones, is also involved in the court case as her son’s litigation guardian, because as a child he can’t make legal decisions himself.

She considers herself a relatively strict parent on social media, and never allowed Noah or his two older brothers to take devices into their bedrooms. But she supports Noah’s stance.

“My parents would never have dreamed that my children could be so fortunate to have this library of knowledge,” Jones said.

“But I really credit Noah as a young person who recognizes the dangers of social media. It’s not all sunshine and lollypops,” she added.

Digital Freedom Project president John Ruddick, who is also a state lawmaker for the minor Libertarian Party, said he had initially intended to apply for a court injunction in a bid to prevent the ban taking effect on Wednesday. But his lawyers advised against it.

A directions hearing will be held in late February to set a hearing date for the constitutional challenge that will be heard by the full bench of seven judges.

Ruddick said the case wasn’t funded by any tech giant, but they would be “extremely welcome” to make a financial contribution.

Ruddick expected children would get around the ban by means including using virtual private networks to make them appear to be offshore.

“They’re going to get around it so they’re then going to be on an underground social media and, to make it worse, without parental supervision,” Ruddick said.

“It’s much better for it to be out in the open and for parents to play a very, very active role … in monitoring what they’re doing on social media,” he added.

A school girl uses her phone as she walks with a group of kids in Sydney, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Noah Jones, left, uses his phone as his mother Renee, walks toward him in Sydney, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Noah Jones shows a warning on his phone that says he cannot access a social media site as his mother Renee, walks toward him in Sydney, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Hugo Winwood-Smith, right, Hardy Macpherson and Edan Abou, left, all 11-years-old, use their phones while sitting outside a school in Sydney, Monday, Dec. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Easter is around the corner, and it's time to start thinking about how to decorate your eggs.

Whether you're dying eggs for your table spread or planning to hide them for an egg hunt, it's important to follow food safety guidelines to minimize germs and maximize your egg quality.

Eggs are remarkably long lasting, so there needn't be a giant rush to eat them.

“Stores usually do turn over eggs pretty quickly, so the recommendations is you should consume eggs three to five weeks after you purchase them,” said Kara Lynch, food safety educator with Michigan State University Extension.

There is also a benefit in letting eggs age just a bit, as older eggs can be easier to peel. That's because eggs shrink over time within the shell, creating an air pocket between the egg and the shell.

Egg processors clean eggs before they reach store shelves, but it also is important to thoroughly cook eggs to reduce the risk of foodborne illness, especially salmonella. That bacteria lives naturally in the gastrointestinal and reproductive tracts of chickens, said Kimberly Baker, associate extension specialist at Clemson University.

To cook your eggs, place them in a saucepan, fill it with water and bring it to a boil. After that, put the lid on, turn the heat off and let it sit for about 12 minutes. Some also favor turning down the heat and simmering eggs.

You can vary the time in the hot water depending on a desire for harder boiled or slightly creamier eggs, but the yolk should be pretty solid to be safe. Boiling them for too long can risk creating green sulfur development on the outside of the yolk.

After that, Don Schaffner, food science department chair at Rutgers University, said there are two options.

You can run your eggs under cold water to reduce the temperature. From there, you can color them right away or place them back in the fridge until you're ready. Or, after you've boiled them, you can let them air dry until they've cooled.

The boiling process sanitizes the eggs, and as long as they are kept out of water, Schaffner said, they will remain safe to eat.

“You’ve boiled the egg, you’ve gotten rid of any bacteria that might be in the egg. And now you’ve air-cooled it, right? So it’s going to cool more slowly, it’s probably going to cook more,” he said. “But most importantly, you don’t have to worry about any bacteria from the water getting internalized into the egg.”

Either artificial or natural food dye is OK as long as the dye label says it's food grade. For those keeping track, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has been updating its guidance and regulations regarding certain dyes.

And no, it's not a problem if the dye seeps through the shell.

“Eggs kind of naturally have their own abilities to absorb only so much,” Baker said.

As you're decorating the eggs and have the eggs outside, she suggested keeping your eggs in an ice bath, so they can stay at a cooler temperature while you're decorating.

Eggs should generally be kept at or below 40 degrees (4.4 degrees Celsius) to minimize the risk of contaminants.

Cooked eggs that weren't air-cooled should spend no more than two hours at room temperature. And that's cumulative, including the time spent decorating and the time spent hiding during the Easter egg hunt.

But if it's particularly warm, then that two-hour rule may be shortened to one hour, Lynch said.

Hard boiled eggs are generally good for about a week in the fridge.

Be careful with your eggs as you handle them.

One of the biggest concerns is making sure your eggs haven't cracked during an Easter egg hunt, making them vulnerable to contaminants. And once the egg has been hard boiled, there's no way to kill bacteria that get inside, Baker said.

“We don’t want to be putting them in the soil or in lawns where pets have gone to the bathroom,” she said.

Whether the eggs are hidden outdoors or in a corner of your home, you should rinse them in cool water before you peel them. And wash your hands, too, just in case the eggs have picked up something.

If the Easter egg hunt means your eggs will be at room temperature for longer than two hours, experts recommended using plastic eggs for the hunt instead of real ones to minimize food safety risk.

“If it’s an outdoor Easter egg hunt at any time, I would say go with the plastic eggs and be safe,” Baker said. “And use your dyed Easter eggs as your centerpiece on your table or your buffet, and enjoy them that way.”

FILE - Painted Easter eggs hang from an Easter Tree in Saalfeld, central Germany, March 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Jens Meyer, File)