When 15-year-old Carlee Jade Clements wakes up, her first thought is to report a Get Prepared With Me video to share together with her pals on TikTok. “I really like recording every thing and posting it the second I’ve it,” says Clements, who lives in Melbourne, Australia.
Like many youngsters, Clements communicates with the world primarily via social media: Snapchat for messaging her pals, Pinterest for inspiration, TikTok for … effectively, every thing. Not like many youngsters, she additionally makes use of social media professionally; Clements has over 37,000 followers on Instagram, the place she typically posts product opinions (skincare, slime) and photographs from her modeling and performing gigs.
However as of December 10, 2025, that may change. That’s when Australia’s Social Media Minimal Age regulation will go into impact, which is able to forestall Australians beneath 16 years previous from having social media accounts. “It’s gonna be very bizarre and quiet and remoted,” says Clements. “I’m going to really feel like I’m minimize off from the world.”
Globally, individuals are beginning to understand how social media can negatively impression adolescents. Even youngsters themselves are seeing this: Almost half of adolescents in the US declare these platforms hurt individuals their age. Australia is the primary nation to take critical motion. In December 2024, legislators handed the Social Media Minimal Age Invoice, which is able to penalize tech platforms (together with TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Fb, X, YouTube, and Reddit) that enable under-16s to entry their platforms.
In response, platforms are locking accounts and adopting age verification necessities. Some platforms, together with Meta, started to enforce it early.
Teen content material creators are taking steps, too. Zoey Bender, age 14, likes to publish GRWM movies and ideas: for making pals in highschool, for beginning seventh grade, for coping with braces. “I really like being artistic about it,” says Bender, who has 58,000 followers on TikTok. “It’s my outlet.”
Her deal with was once @heyitszoey. In November, she and her dad, Mark, modified it to @_heyitszoeyandmark, with the hopes that her account received’t be deleted on December 10 as a result of it’s now managed by an grownup. She says that many different youngsters with giant followings are doing the identical; Clements’ mother already manages her Instagram account.
That implies that as soon as the age restrictions are in place, their skilled accounts will probably nonetheless exist—though as teen and child accounts are suspended, their engagement will probably go down, they usually might lose followers, too. That may imply a decline in free merchandise and in income, although it’s typically not an enormous quantity: Ava Jones, 12, who has 11,500 followers on Instagram, estimates that she makes $1,000-$2,000 Australian ($600-$1,300 US) per 12 months, which she typically spends on make-up and garments. “If that went away, I’d must do extra chores at residence,” she says.
