The news: The Canadian government proposed the Safe Social Media Act on Wednesday, aiming to restrict users under 16 from holding social media accounts. Unlike full bans elsewhere, Canada would allow platforms to opt back into hosting youth accounts if a newly created Digital Safety Commission certifies that they have stripped their environments of addictive designs like infinite scrolls.

The bill also loops in AI chatbot providers, requiring strict safety standards. Non-compliance carries steep penalties: up to 3% of global revenues or $10 million CAD.

Consumers react: The Canadian public is supportive of banning access to social media for children under 16. Seventy percent of adults support the ban; 41% of which strongly support it, according to Leger.

Zooming out: Governments around the world are shifting from parental controls to age limits:

• UK & Europe: The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) requires bans on behavioral tracking and targeted advertising directed at minors. Individual European nations are currently debating a standardized, EU-wide digital minimum age of 16.
• United States: State-level age-gates or parental consent bills remain caught in legal gridlock, with tech coalitions successfully arguing they violate First Amendment privacy and speech rights.
• Emerging markets: Countries in Southeast Asia and South America are enacting swift mini-bans, deactivating underage profiles on platforms.

Major platforms have stripped away interest-based targeting for users under 18 in some markets, limiting advertisers to broad metrics like age, gender, and general location. Additionally, under-16 accounts are now often private by default with locked direct messaging.

Enforcement challenges: Australia serves as the global use case for an absolute under-16 social media lockout via its Online Safety Amendment Act. However, empirical tracking highlights a major execution gap: Roughly 70% of banned teenagers successfully retained platform access months after implementation.

Teenagers are using virtual private networks (VPNs) to spoof locations or adult credentials to bypass automated gates. Advocacy groups like the National Youth Rights Association also warn that locking kids out of moderated, mainstream platforms pushes them underground toward unmonitored alternative servers and encrypted chat apps where risks are higher.

Implication for marketers: Advertisers face less traditional adjacency risk regarding youth-related controversies, such as ads appearing next to cyberbullying or dangerous viral stunts. To compensate for the loss of youth engagement, platforms are tuning algorithms to maximize adult watch-time. Expect higher adult audience CPMs as overall platform reach narrows, though this is balanced by higher data integrity and zero wasted spend on underage impressions.

Behavioral tracking would no longer be an option for anyone under 18, but compliance can’t be assumed because user bypass rates remain high. To reach older teens legally, marketers must return to traditional contextual advertising—aligning with specific creators, family media, and trusted publisher networks—and continue layering intent on independent demographic filters and custom keyword lists.