A Melbourne teen is clinging to her creative future but fears Australia’s social media ban will impact her income and opportunities.
Carlee Jade Clements, 15, has 37,000 followers on Instagram and is yet to be kicked off the platform despite being removed from TikTok when Australia’s world-first social media ban kicked in on Wednesday.
Under the laws, 10 of the biggest platforms including Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat have been ordered to ban about one million users under 16 from accessing their accounts.
Carlee has spent years building her Instagram following, with the account managed by her mother Simone.
It acts as a digital portfolio to showcase her acting, dancing and modelling, and has helped her land paid opportunities, including brand deals.
“I got flown to Sydney for an Invisalign ad that I got paid for, I wouldn’t have had that job without my Instagram,” she told AAP.
“It’s my dream job to be an actor.”
But her followers and views have plunged as her predominantly teenage audience has been kicked off the platform, with engagement metrics one of the main determinants of revenue from advertisers.
“It’s really annoying, it’s everything I’ve worked for,” Carlee said.
“It’s taken years and years and years of work, and to take it away like that is devastating.”
Carlee fears her Instagram could be deleted any day, resulting in her effectively losing her job and networking opportunities.
“If I get kicked off, I won’t be able to get my income,” she said.
“I have definitely made good money to go into my savings, it helps me pay for my dance costumes.”
Communications Minister Anika Wells has said the eSafety commissioner would be asking all affected platforms to report how many under-16 accounts were still active.
If removed from Instagram, Carlee would also miss strong social bonds she has formed, adding that she received an outpouring of supportive messages when her father died suddenly last year.
“We had tens of thousands of people pass on their condolences and that was massive to us,” Simone Clements said.
She also promotes fundraisers for charities close to her heart, including for Camp Quality and Redkite, which helped out her twin brother Hayden when he battled two brain tumours as a child.
Some families have moved abroad to avoid being captured under the Australian laws, including Bec Lea, who cited it as one of the reasons she moved to the UK with her 14-year-old influencer daughter Charli.
The Lea family has more than 1.85 million YouTube subscribers.
“When it became clear that the ban really was coming, we knew we’ve got to find a solution,” Ms Lea said in a video.
“Charli loves being online.”
Parents and children will not be punished if they circumvent the ban, with the onus falling on tech giants to take “reasonable steps” to remove under 16s from accessing their accounts, or face fines of up to $49.5 million.