After months of anticipation and debate, Australia’s social media ban is now in drive.
Younger Australians underneath 16 should now come to grips with the brand new actuality of being unable to have an account on some social media platforms, together with Instagram, TikTok and Fb.
Solely time will inform whether or not this daring, world-first experiment will succeed. Regardless of this, many countries are already contemplating following Australia’s lead.
However there are different jurisdictions which are taking a special method to attempt to maintain younger individuals protected on-line.
Right here’s what’s taking place abroad.
A world motion
In November, the European parliament known as for the same social media ban for underneath 16s.
The President of the European Fee, Ursula von der Leyen, mentioned she has been studying Australia’s restrictions and the way they handle what she described as “algorithms that prey on youngsters’s vulnerabilities”, leaving dad and mom feeling powerless towards “the tsunami of massive tech flooding their properties”.
In October, New Zealand announced it will introduce comparable laws to Australia’s, following the work of a parliamentary committee to look at how finest to deal with hurt on social media platforms. The committee’s report can be launched in early 2026.
Pakistan and India are aiming to scale back youngsters’s publicity to dangerous content material by introducing guidelines requiring parental consent and age verification for platform entry, alongside content material moderation expectations for tech firms.
Malaysia has announced it should ban youngsters underneath 16 from social media beginning in 2026. This follows the nation requiring social media and messaging platforms with eight million or extra customers to acquire licenses to function, and use age verification and content-safety measures from January 2025.
France is also considering a social media ban for youngsters underneath 15 and a 10pm to 8am curfew for platform use for 15- to 18-year-olds. These are amongst 43 suggestions made by a French inquiry in September 2025, which additionally beneficial banning smartphones in faculties, and implementing a criminal offense of “digital negligence for folks who fail to guard their youngsters”.
Whereas France launched a requirement in 2023 that platforms receive parental consent for youngsters underneath 15 to create social media accounts, it has but to be enforced. That is additionally the case in Germany. There, youngsters aged between 13 and 16 can solely entry platforms with parental consent, however with out formal checks in place.
And, in Spain, the minimal age for social media accounts will rise from 14 to 16, except dad and mom present consent.
Norway introduced plans in July to limit entry to social media for underneath 15s. The government explained the regulation can be “designed in accordance with youngsters’s basic rights, together with freedom of expression, entry to info, and the precise to affiliation”.
In November, Denmark announced it will “ban entry to social media for anybody underneath 15”. Nevertheless, in contrast to Australia’s laws, dad and mom can override the principles to allow 13- and 14-year-olds to retain platform entry. But there isn’t a date for implementation, with lawmakers expected to take months to move the laws.
It’s additionally unclear how Denmark’s ban can be enforced. However the nation does have a nationwide digital ID program which may be used.
In July, Denmark was named as a part of a pilot program (with Greece, France, Spain, and Italy) to trial an age verification app that might be launched throughout the European Union to be used by grownup content material websites and different digital suppliers.
Some pushback
The implementation of comparable restrictions will not be being taken up all over the place.
For instance, South Korea has decided against a social media ban for youngsters. However it should ban using cell phones and different units in school rooms beginning in March 2026.
Within the metropolis of Toyoake (south-west of Tokyo, Japan), a really totally different answer has been proposed. The town’s mayor, Masafumi Koki, issued an ordinance in October, limiting using smartphones, tablets, and computer systems to 2 hours per day for individuals of all ages.
Koki is conscious of Australia’s social media restrictions. However as he explained:
If adults are usually not held to the identical requirements, youngsters is not going to settle for the principles.
Whereas the ordinance has faced backlash, and is non-binding, it prompted 40% of residents to replicate on their behaviour, with 10% decreasing their time on smartphones.
In america, the opposition to Australia’s social media restrictions has been extraordinarily vocal and vital.
American media and know-how firms have urged President Donald Trump to “reprimand” Australia over its laws. They argue American firms are being unfairly focused and have lodged formal complaints with the Workplace of US Commerce.
President Trump has stated he would stand as much as any international locations that “attacked” American know-how firms. The US not too long ago known as eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant to testify in front of Congress. US Republican Jim Jordan claimed her enforcement of Australia’s On-line Security Act “imposes obligations on American firms and threatens speech of Americans”, which Inman-Grant strongly denied.
The world will maintain watching
Whereas a lot of the world appears united in concern concerning the dangerous content material and algorithmic options youngsters expertise on social media, just one factor is obvious – there isn’t a silver bullet for addressing these harms.
There is no such thing as a agreed set of restrictions, or particular age at which legislators agree youngsters ought to have unrestricted entry to those platforms.
Many international locations outdoors Australia are empowering dad and mom to offer entry, in the event that they imagine it’s proper for his or her youngsters. And plenty of international locations are contemplating how finest to implement restrictions, in the event that they implement comparable guidelines.
As consultants level to the technical challenges in imposing Australia’s restrictions, and as younger Australians take into account workarounds to keep up their accounts or discover new platforms to make use of, different international locations will proceed to look at and plan their subsequent strikes.
- Lisa M. Given, Professor of Data Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Influence Platform, RMIT University
This text is republished from The Conversation underneath a Inventive Commons license. Learn the original article.
