Wellbeing

Mindfulness and Stress Reduction 

Mindfulness — paying attention to the present moment without judgment — can help teenagers manage stress, improve focus, and regulate emotions. Developing mindfulness skills can prevent stress from escalating and support wellbeing both at school and home. 

Parents can introduce mindfulness practices in simple, practical ways and model calm, reflective behaviour. Even a few minutes a day can have meaningful benefits for adolescents. 

What parents can do: 

• Encourage short daily mindfulness exercises (e.g., noticing five things they see, hear, and feel) 
• Model calm responses when stressed to demonstrate self-regulation 
• Promote outdoor time, nature walks, or quiet reflection periods 
• Remind teens to pause and take slow breaths during tense moments 

What students can do: 

• Practise mindful breathing or guided meditations 
• Take short breaks away from screens to notice their surroundings 
• Keep a mindfulness journal to track feelings and progress 
• Use stress-reduction apps designed for teens, like Smiling Mind 

Learn more: https://www.smilingmind.com.au 

Social Media platforms on notice

From mid-December, eSafety has been monitoring age-restricted platforms to assess how they are complying with their obligations to prevent under-16s from having accounts. It is clear the restrictions are already having an impact. Based on information gathered through legally enforceable notices, many platforms have removed, deactivated or restricted a large number of under‑age accounts. 

However, based on the information gathered, including through submissions from the public, field research with parents and carers and engagement with key stakeholders, children under 16 continue to retain accounts, create new ones, or pass platforms’ age checks.

Because of these concerns, eSafety is now focusing its investigations on five major platforms - Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube. These platforms have been notified about our concerns and expectations for improvement and warned eSafety will take enforcement action if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent systemic failures that allow children under 16 from having accounts on their service.  

Major reforms like this take time – not just to embed, but to spark a broader cultural shift in how industry designs services to keep children safer online.  It won’t happen overnight, and although we can see some progress has been made, it's clear there's still a way to go.   

This update explains what eSafety has learned so far since the legislation took effect on 10 December 2025. We will continue to provide transparency where we can while protecting the integrity of our ongoing regulatory processes and provide relevant up-to-date information for the community, including children and young people, parents and carers and educators at our social media age restrictions hub. 

eSafety remains committed to holding platforms accountable, and ensuring these restrictions deliver real change for Australian families.