After months of anticipation and debate, Australia’s social media ban is now in pressure.
Young Australians beneath 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 Facebook.
Only time will inform whether or not this daring, world-first experiment will succeed. Despite this, many nations are already contemplating following Australia’s lead.
But there are different jurisdictions which might be taking a special strategy to attempt to preserve younger individuals secure on-line.
Here’s what’s occurring abroad.
Global motion
In November, the European parliament referred to as for the same social media ban for beneath 16s.
The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, stated she has been finding out Australia’s restrictions and the way they tackle what she described as “algorithms that prey on kids’s vulnerabilities”, leaving dad and mom feeling powerless in opposition to “the tsunami of huge tech flooding their properties”.
In October, New Zealand introduced it could introduce related 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 will likely be launched in early 2026.
Pakistan and India are aiming to scale back kids’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 introduced it’s going to ban kids beneath 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 can also be contemplating a social media ban for youngsters beneath 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 really useful banning smartphones in faculties, and implementing against the law of “digital negligence for folks who fail to guard their kids”.
While France launched a requirement in 2023 that platforms acquire parental consent for youngsters beneath 15 to create social media accounts, it has but to be enforced. This can also be the case in Germany. There, kids 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 beneath 15s. The authorities defined the regulation could be “designed in accordance with kids’s elementary rights, together with freedom of expression, entry to info, and the best to affiliation”.
In November, Denmark introduced it could “ban entry to social media for anybody beneath 15”. However, in contrast to Australia’s laws, dad and mom can override the foundations to allow 13- and 14-year-olds to retain platform entry. Yet there isn’t any date for implementation, with lawmakers anticipated to take months to cross the laws.
It’s additionally unclear how Denmark’s ban will likely be enforced. But 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 may very well 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 in all places.
For instance, South Korea has determined in opposition to a social media ban for youngsters. But it’s going to ban using cellphones and different units in school rooms beginning in March 2026.
In town of Toyoake (south-west of Tokyo, Japan), a really completely different resolution has been proposed. The metropolis’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. But as he defined: If adults should not held to the identical requirements, kids is not going to settle for the foundations.
While the ordinance has confronted backlash, and is non-binding, it prompted 40% of residents to replicate on their behaviour, with 10% lowering their time on smartphones.
In the United States, the opposition to Australia’s social media restrictions has been extraordinarily vocal and vital.
American media and expertise 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 Office of US Trade.
President Trump has said he would stand as much as any nations that “attacked” American expertise firms. The US not too long ago referred to as eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant to testify in entrance of Congress. US Republican Jim Jordan claimed her enforcement of Australia’s Online Safety Act “imposes obligations on American firms and threatens speech of American residents”, which Inman-Grant strongly denied.
The world will preserve watching
While a lot of the world appears united in concern concerning the dangerous content material and algorithmic options kids expertise on social media, just one factor is obvious – there isn’t any silver bullet for addressing these harms.
There is not any agreed set of restrictions, or particular age at which legislators agree kids ought to have unrestricted entry to those platforms.
Many nations outdoors Australia are empowering dad and mom to offer entry, in the event that they consider it’s proper for his or her kids. And many nations are contemplating how finest to implement restrictions, in the event that they implement related 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 nations will proceed to look at and plan their subsequent strikes.
Lisa M Given is Professor of Information Sciences & Director, Social Change Enabling Impact Platform, RMIT University.
This article was first printed on The Conversation.
