The news: Australia’s landmark legislation that cut off social media access for users under 16 years old sparked a chain reaction, signaling a global reevaluation of how minors interact with the internet.

• The Indian state of Andhra Pradesh is considering a similar law. “We are studying Australia’s under-16 law, and yes, I believe we need to create a strong legal enactment,” Nara Lokesh, state minister for human resources, told Bloomberg.
• The UK said it will explore a similar ban amid growing political debate over minors’ use of social media: Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said her party would ban minors from social platforms and phones from schools if it were in power.
• France, Indonesia, and Malaysia are also working on social media legislation covering minors’ social media use, and a number of US states already have.

Why it matters: The wave of bans means social media platforms may be cut off from access to young users’ data, which has controversially contributed billions to social media revenues. In 2024, a Harvard study found that Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, and YouTube earned $11 billion in advertising revenues from users under 18 in 2022, directly attributing a dollar amount to minors.

Implications for marketers: Though new global standards could take years to fall into place, Australia’s ban and its echoes in other countries should signal to marketers that the era of easy access to young audiences is coming to an end—at least on social media. Data privacy and advertising regulation on platforms like connected TVs (CTVs) are moving at a slower pace.

Still, advertisers will have to assess the value of advertising to minors at all, including on channels with relatively uninterrupted access to them. Even platforms that escaped Australia’s ban, like gaming service Roblox, have started introducing stricter age verification—a sign that they expect the ban to eventually extend its reach or that they sense popular sentiment is moving against them.

This content is part of EMARKETER’s subscription Briefings, where we pair daily updates with data and analysis from forecasts and research reports. Our Briefings prepare you to start your day informed, to provide critical insights in an important meeting, and to understand the context of what’s happening in your industry. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.