Australia’s youth social media ban inspires other nations

Australia will soon ban its youths from popular services such as 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.

- By NewLey PURNELL, ANGUS WHITLEY AND SANNE WASS

It’s likely to be the first of many.The platforms will be required by law to block under-16-year-olds from holding accounts starting Wednesday, 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, Indonesia, to Copenhagen to 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-l6s on social media globally are scarce, research firm EMarketer says about 1 in 10 U.S. users are under 18. In some populous emerging markets suc as Brazil, under-I8s make up nearly 1 in 5.

User numbers, as well as time spent on platforms, are crucial 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 more than 4 billion users worldwide.

Australia’s success as a trailblazer is far from ensured, with technology experts cautioning that teenagers are likely to find ways to skirt the rules. But if forced to wait until they're older to join, some may end up bypassing the services altogether.

“As more governments look to tighten social media age limits, this could lead to a global patchwork of age assurance or verification rules for platforms,” said Abigail Chen of political and regulatory consulting firm Flint Global. “This fragmentation would make compliance more costly and challenging.