Are social media bans for children working in other countries?

In December 2025, Australia became the first country to impose a sweeping social media ban on children under 16. Other countries soon followed, citing concerns about deteriorating mental health and rampant access to online pornography, among others. 

Indonesia, the first Southeast Asian country to do so, began in March to deactivate accounts for users under 16 on platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Roblox. 

Brazil, Malaysia, the UK, Germany, Italy, Turkiye, and the UAE have all rolled out similar measures. At least 12 other nations have the ban in their legislative pipeline, plus a potential European-wide ban, as well. 

Will these all work, though? 

Blanket social media bans: effective or not?

While social media bans on minors are still in their early stages, some studies and follow-up reports have found that at least a couple of these measures are not hitting the mark. 

Australia's internet regulator eSafety found that three months after the December 2025 rollout of the ban, kids under 16, the target of the prohibition, could still use social media. 

According to their report released on July 31, although the percentage of kids under 16 using age-restricted social media platforms went down by 4.4% in March, under-16s were still using their apps.

Most of the kids who had social media accounts prior to the law being imposed managed to either retain their accounts or create new ones. A peer-reviewed study published in June in the British Medical Journal found relatively the same results. 

According to eSafety, the measure's lukewarm effect was largely due to social media platforms failing to implement an effective age assurance system.

This did not stop Meta from asking Australia to rethink its ban and "engage with industry constructively to find a better way forward," said Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg in January 2026.

The UK is facing a similar problem regarding non-compliance of social media platforms. Although it hasn't yet fully implemented a social media ban for its youth, the country has asked major social media platforms that have adult content to apply age verification steps. 

However, according to a report by Ofcom, the UK's communications regulator, some platforms are failing to fully enforce minimum age limits. Their lapses have allowed children aged eight to 14 access to pornography sites where half had no age checks in place. 

'We need to give it time'

In an Australian Senate inquiry, however, local heads of Google, Meta, Snapchat and TikTok urged the government not to place too much weight on early evidence showing most children still use their products.

Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told the body that the March data showed "early signs of working" as there is a modest decline in the number of underage accounts.

"We are seeing change, but we need to give it time," she said. "Once that active enforcement starts, that's when the behavior starts to change."

YouTube's Rachel Lord added that technologies to detect users under 16 are evolving.

Meta released figures a day earlier showing it had deactivated 756,000 Instagram and Facebook accounts suspected of belonging to underage users, up from about 500,000 in March. YouTube's Lord said Google has stopped about 740,000 holders of Google accounts from using their accounts to use YouTube.

TikTok's Australian head of public policy Jessica Loftstedt said the company's compliance efforts were an "iterative process." The company had taken down 550,000 accounts when the law took effect and had since been removing about 24,000 a month.

Resistance

In other countries, the obstacles to social media bans come from within.

When Indonesia imposed its ban in March, the government said there was "no room for compromise" as it cited threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, and internet addiction.

However, soon after the rollout of the measure, Amnesty International Indonesia's Executive Director Usman Hamid argued that social media platforms are "vital channels" of communication for the country's "tens of millions of young people".

He did acknowledge the real dangers posed by online content, but Hamid called the blanket ban "an overly simplistic solution to a complex problem. The focus should be on making digital spaces safer, not excluding children from them."

In a similar vein, on Aug. 14, France's top court blocked the bill banning social media access for under-15s, saying it violated the youths' freedom of expression, per Reuters.

The bill would have barred kids under 15 from creating a social media account by Sept. 1. It would also have allowed the closing of all existing social media accounts of the same age group by January 2027. 

A social media ban in the Philippines soon?

Lawmakers in the Philippines have filed bills seeking a similar ban. 

In July 2025, Sen. Ping Lacson proposed a bill restricting social media use only to individuals 18 and above. At the beginning of 2026, Rep. Lani Mercado-Revilla filed an act regulating algorithms to make social media platforms safe for children. On March 3, 2026, Rep. Eduardo C. Villanueva filed a bill seeking to prohibit social media use for minors 16 and below.

Following the shooting at a Tacloban high school on June 22, which left three dead, Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri joined the call for tighter social media controls for Filipino youth. He reiterated his stand on Wednesday, Aug. 19, a day after another school shooting incident, this time at a Zamboanga high school, claimed two lives. 

"Kapag ang isang bata ay kayang manood, maglaro at makakita ng violence for hours every day, we cannot pretend walang epekto iyon," Zubiri wrote on X. "The times have changed, and our laws must catch up. I support a serious social media ban for children." (with additional reports from REUTERS)