JOHN YANG: Blowback and backlash to social media and its effect on young people are reverberating across the globe, not just in the United States.

In recent months, many countries from the United Kingdom to Malaysia have announced plans to enact measures restricting social media access for children and teens.

Australia was the first to implement a ban like that late last year, setting an example that the other nations are now closely monitoring.

Stephanie Sy reports on what that pioneering ban looks like for teens today.

STEPHANIE SY: In Brisbane on a recent weekend, the Dolezal family sat down together for lunch, on the menu, pizza and salad, but off the table, screens.

Lauren Dolezal, like many parents, tries to limit the amount of time her two kids, 12-year-old Bea and 11-year-old Josie, spend on their devices.

What are your concerns about your kids being on screens and on social media?

LAUREN DOLEZAL, Mother: You have to worry about the impact it's having on their brain chemistry, the impact it has on their attention spans and the impact it has on their own sense of self, I think.

STEPHANIE SY: Josie uses an iPad for school and Bea got her first smartphone when she started high school this January.

LAUREN DOLEZAL: Because she's catching the bus and walking to school and things like that.

She has messaging on there.

She has WhatsApp.

The group chats are popping off all the time.

STEPHANIE SY: But unlike teenagers in most other countries, when she turns 13, she won't be able to get on some of the world's most popular social media platforms.

ANTHONY ALBANESE, Australian Prime Minister: This is the day when Australian families are taking back power from these big tech companies.

STEPHANIE SY: In December, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese launched an ambitious experiment, banning teens under the age of 16 from using 10 social media platforms, including TikTok, YouTube and Meta's Instagram and Facebook.

Social media companies face steep fines if they don't make reasonable efforts to prevent underage users from holding accounts.

MICHAEL NOETEL, University of Queensland: I'm really proud of Australia for taking such decisive action in face of the evidence that they saw.

STEPHANIE SY: Michael Noetel, a researcher at the University of Queensland, has studied the relationship between screen time and socioemotional problems in children.

MICHAEL NOETEL: Young people are facing more and more mental health problems than any previous generation.

Mental health problems are so debilitating that we really need to throw everything at it.

And this is one easy thing in the toolkit, relatively speaking.

STEPHANIE SY: Before the restrictions, 96 percent of 10-to-15-year-olds in Australia used social media; 72 percent had seen harmful content online and more than half had been cyber-bullied.

Both major parties support the ban, and it's extremely popular.

Lauren Dolezal says it came as a massive relief.

LAUREN DOLEZAL: As a parent with a child going into high school who wasn't yet on social media, it's become a very helpful tool to say no because it's against the law.

STEPHANIE SY: After a series of high-profile suicides, Dolezal says cyber-bullying too was a main concern.

LAUREN DOLEZAL: One thing we can do as adults is take the loaded gun away from them or take away that thing that they can use to hurt somebody, and you have got to protect kids from being harmed.

STEPHANIE SY: From the start, the government set expectations that the rollout might be rocky.

ANIKA WELLS, Australian Communication Minister: We know this law will not be perfect, but it is too important not to have a crack.

STEPHANIE SY: Companies have introduced a range of tools to check their users' age, from self-reporting to technology that determines age based on selfies, not exactly airtight methods.

After the ban went into effect, many teens like 14-year-olds Claire (ph) and Stella, still had access to their accounts.

STELLA PIETERSE, 14 Years Old: I kind of see where they're coming from, but I think if you can get a job at 14, if you can do babysitting and stuff, I think you should be able to have social media and have the government trust you on it.

STEPHANIE SY: And strategies for circumnavigating the age verification systems quickly spread.

MAN: So what are you actually trying to do, Ash?

ASHER PATRIKIOS, 13 Years Old: Make myself have wrinkles.

STEPHANIE SY: Simply by making funny faces, 13-year-old Asher Patrikios was able to access Snapchat, one of the banned platforms.

MAN: It worked?

ASHER PATRIKIOS: Oh, yes, it let me in.

It let me in.

It's been no real point, really, because I just find a work-around.

STEPHANIE SY: About a month into the ban, the government announced companies had removed access to the accounts of about 4.7 million young users.

But experts say those statistics may not tell the whole story.

SUSAN MCLEAN, Cyber Safety Solutions: I'm very aware of some children that, yes, were booted off, but quickly made another account.

And they're keeping on keeping on.

STEPHANIE SY: Susan McLean, a former police officer, is widely known as the Cyber Cop for pioneering the field of cyber safety in her home state of Victoria.

SUSAN MCLEAN: You cannot ban your way to safety; 10 platforms out of hundreds of thousands really is not going to make much of a difference.

STEPHANIE SY: McLean says other unregulated apps are rushing in to fill the void.

Instead of a blanket ban, she advocates for regulations that would make all platforms more safe.

SUSAN MCLEAN: We need to make sure that, when young people are on these platforms, they are not exposed to inappropriate content.

They are not contacted by pedophiles.

They are not going down rabbit holes of misogynistic and sexual content or suicide ideation content.

STEPHANIE SY: For some teenagers, like 15-year-old Ezra Sholl, the ban threatens to take away a social lifeline.

It wasn't always so.

EZRA SHOLL, 15 Years Old: I wasn't allowed on social media, and when I got sick, my parents were like, go for it.

STEPHANIE SY: Ezra had Hodgkin's lymphoma when he was 12 years old.

The cancer triggered a nerve condition which left him paralyzed and unable to pursue his former hobbies, like playing basketball.

EZRA SHOLL: Social media has really kind of filled that void in my social life, and it's given me the avenue to still be friends with my friends, make new friends, feel connected with the wider world.

STEPHANIE SY: Natasha, Ezra's mom, says the government hasn't considered the gaps created by the social media ban for teens who are isolated, including kids in rural Australia and LGBTQ+ teens.

NATASHA SHOLL, Mother of Ezra Sholl: We might be living in a very specific and extreme situation, but there are lots of other kids who use social media for similar connection, and the world might be just as inaccessible.

STEPHANIE SY: One of the goals is to improve teens' mental health.

But researcher Michael Noetel says it's too early to understand the ban's full impacts.

MICHAEL NOETEL: The effects here are not going to be perfect.

We're not going to take away all kids' mental health problems straight away.

It's going to take time to find this out.

It could take over a year to know whether or not this is having the benefits people expect.

STEPHANIE SY: Back at the Dolezals, 12-year-old Bea says most teens she knows were using social media responsibly.

BEATRIX DOLEZAL, 12 Years Old: It'd be really good if there was just like, on all the social media platforms, like stricter rules for kids that are under 16 if they are on it.

STEPHANIE SY: But, per Mom's and now the government's rules, she will stay off it until she's legally allowed.

LAUREN DOLEZAL: It's made that conversation around social media safety a little bit easier, and I think it gives you more time to then teach kids how to be on social media safely before it's put into their hands.

STEPHANIE SY: While the world watches, so too will a panel of government-appointed experts to see if the experiment works as intended.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Stephanie Sy.

JOHN YANG: Tomorrow, we will bring you a report from Germany about how that country is considering a ban on social media for children under 14.