Aussies under the age of 16 are preparing for their online presence to be wiped, as Meta and other popular platforms begin to fall in line with the Federal Government’s world-first under-16 social media ban.
The move, which was approved last November amid concerns about youth mental health and surging screentime, will take full effect as of December 10. Meta — which owns Instagram, Facebook and Threads — announced this week that it will begin banning under-16 accounts a week earlier, on December 4.
Now with just two weeks left on a number of platforms hundreds of thousands of young people are now preparing to get kicked off TikTok, SnapChat, Reddit, YouTube, Kick, and the newly added Twitch.
They’re being warned to download their content before the apps ban them for good. Is that you? Great! We’ve compiled a guide to downloading your content. Sorry kids, see you in a few years.
Meta
To download Meta data — including content from Facebook, Instagram and Threads — you’ll have to head to your Meta accounts centre, which you can find in the settings menu of any of those apps. From there, click “Your information and permissions”, “export your information” and “create export”, then choose from which profile you’d like to export content.
You can choose what type of data you want to export as well as the date range and the quality level of content like photos and videos. You can export it straight to your device or to an external storage source. After providing your email address, Meta will notify you when the content is ready to export.
From there, click “Start export” and your content will be saved before the ban hits.
Snapchat
Under-16 SnapChatters still have a smidge more time to download their digital histories, but it’s best to get ahead in any case. To download SnapChat content, head to the app’s “My Data” page in the Settings section.
A pop-up listing what kind of data you’d like to retrieve — including Snap Memories, Chats, Snap History, and Bitmojis and Custom Stickers — will appear for you to choose from. You can then choose the date range (or toggle off if you want all content) before entering your email address.
SnapChat will send a link with the selected downloadable data to your email once it’s ready.
TikTok
By now you might get the gist. TikTok content is downloadable from the Profile section of your app. Once there, click on the “Menu” button at the top and scroll to the “Settings and Privacy” section. Then head to “Account” and tap “Download your Data”.
TikTok will ask you what type of content and from which dates you want to retrieve it, before producing a downloadable file with all your data. The file is only available for four days.
The folks over at Reddit do things a little differently. To retrieve your content from this platform, you’ll have to submit a data request form by heading to THIS page on your computer’s web browser. From there, log in the Reddit account you’d like to request data from, fill out the instructions of the form and click Submit.
It may take Reddit up to 30 days to prepare your data, but once it’s ready, it’ll be sent via a downloadable link to the email address associated with your account.
So there you have it, my little digital natives, the easiest ways to download your content before the under-16s social media ban hits. It might feel daunting, but many other platforms, like WhatsApp, Discord and iMessage, are exempt from the ban, so those group chats can remain active.
If it’s any consolation, find solace in the fact that your cringe posts will be scrubbed without you having to scroll all the way down to find them. If all else fails, go touch grass while the rest of us are locked in a perpetual doom-scroll. Now, be free from the shackles of the algorithm!
Lead images: Getty Images and Comedy Central
The post How To Download All Your Social Media Content Before The Under-16s Ban Hits appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
