CANBERRA — At position 14 in the public queue outside the High Court of Australia, our observation began at 07:12 on Wednesday, behind a man eating a meat pie with the concentration of a surgeon. Inside, the Commonwealth was defending its under-16s social media ban against a High Court challenge. Early in the session, it conceded that the ban — which it calls 'world-leading' — was implemented before any scientific consensus exists on the link between social media use and mental health harms in teenagers. No one in the gallery wrote this down. We did.
We counted other things. The phrase 'credible risks' was deployed 41 times before the lunch adjournment; we kept the tally on the back of a gallery permit. 'Credible' also modified 'harms' (9), 'concerns' (6) and 'basis' (4). The descriptor 'world-leading' appeared 7 times, always at the same volume. Each instance of 'credible' was spoken without a supporting number following it. We waited for one eleven times. None came.
Counsel for the Commonwealth argued that the credible risks of addictive behaviours and anxiety justify the policy. The concession and the justification shared the same filing. In field terms, the species stated it had never measured the thing, then regulated it anyway, then praised the regulation while doing so. The gallery absorbed all three clauses with a single nod. We timed the nod at 1.4 seconds.
During the adjournment, we put the tally to a bystander. 'They can't show it hurts them and they can't show it doesn't, so they've gone with credible,' said Maree Kavanagh, 64, a retired court reporter who attends significant sittings the way other locals attend sport. 'Credible is the word you use when the measuring has been skipped. It holds the whole roof up.' She returned to her sandwich.
The Commonwealth also told the court that its proposed laws letting users opt out of the algorithms would ultimately have the same effect as the ban. Two instruments, one outcome, both defended before the sandwiches. 'Forty-one before lunch is a quiet morning,' said Declan Frew, an associate at a national law firm, whose function during the session, he confirmed, was to nod at the correct intervals. 'On a heavy day the juniors bring clickers.'
Proceedings resumed at 14:15 and the count resumed with them. The supply held. By the afternoon adjournment, 'credible risks' stood at 67 and 'world-leading' at 11. 'Consensus' was recorded once, in the negative. No other person in the building was counting either figure. We submit this as the finding.
