A global drive to curb social media for kids begins in Australia

Australia will soon ban its youth from popular services like TikTok and Instagram, becoming the world's first democracy to carry out such a crackdown in response to growing concerns about social media’s harms.

- Newley Purnell, Tribune News Service

Caroline Stage Olsen

It's likely to be the first of many. The platforms will be required by law to block under-16s from holding accounts from Dec. 10, with companies that don’t comply facing fines of up to $32 million. The measures are spurring an increasing number of governments to seek to hold social media firms to account for toxic content and cyberbullying. Interviews with policymakers from Jakarta to Copenhagen and Brasilia show they're watching the rollout in Australia closely and planning moves of their own to protect young users, a crucial demographic for Big Tech.

“I was super envious when they announced it,” said Caroline Stage Olsen, Denmark's minister for digital affairs. “Fundamentally, it’s a really important step.” While figures on the number of under-16s on social media globally are scarce, research firm EMarketer says about one in ten US users are under 18. In some populous emerging markets like Brazil, under-18s make up nearly one in five.

User numbers, as well as time spent on platforms, are critical for social media firms because advertising accounts for the bulk of their sales. Curtailing teens’ access could jeopardize a portion of the more than $245 billion EMarketer estimates the industry will make this year from over 4 billion users worldwide.