Six more sleeps. No, not until Santa squeezes down the chimney. But many parents will receive an early Christmas present on December 10. That's when kids under 16 will be banned from social media platforms.

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The world-leading minimum age legislation will not immediately put a stop to the online harm experienced by seven out of 10 kids. Nor will it immediately see an entire generation put down their smartphones, jump on their bicycles and immerse themselves in the sorts of childhoods us oldies remember from a time before algorithms and scrolling addiction.

But it will give parents a reasonably compelling argument. Telling a child they can't do something because it's against the law is empowering. At least that's the theory.

Communications Minister Anika Wells spelled out the intent of the social media age restriction at the National Press Club yesterday. The law would go some way towards protecting children at their most vulnerable age from the predatory algorithms that cause so much harm.

Wells conceded that the ban is a work in progress, that keeping up with the avalanche of new social media platforms was a game of whack-a-mole. Impose restrictions on one platform and a new one would emerge to take its place. Nothing new in that assessment of the challenges that lie ahead.

Kids will find new platforms and they will find ways to get around the ban - just as you and I did all those years ago when we inveigled older teens to buy us a six-pack of Resch's from the bottle shop or a pack of Woodbines from the corner store.

More importantly, kids will see through the hypocrisy of parents telling them to get off their screens while glued to their own. Just the same as we did as youngsters while being lectured about the harm of alcohol by parents clutching a glass of Maroomba just refilled from the ever-present cask.

The threat of massive fines for platforms which don't enforce the ban is one thing. Keeping up with new platforms is another. But the new law will only really work if parents step up and lead by example. That means confronting their own phone........

© The Examiner