In recent years there has been a growing perception that social media platforms have dictated the rules of online engagement while avoiding genuine accountability for online safety risks.
What was once framed as being about a digital platform for openness and connection is increasingly viewed in terms of its harms and costs, particularly for young people.
The New York Times #1 bestseller The Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness—arguably provided a tipping point that elevated these concerns and galvanised action to address them.
By New York University’s Professor Jonathan Haidt, it is one of the most influential books on public policy by an academic on any topic in recent years.
Experts such as Haidt reference a growing body of evidence regarding the harms of social media on younger generations, from declining mental health and eroded self-esteem and social skills to fractured attention spans and the normalisation of harmful content. They consider how social media impacts girls and boys albeit in sometimes strikingly different ways.
These risks are allegedly far from accidental; they are increasingly seen to be the by-product of business models and “predatory algorithms” optimised above all for engagement and data extraction to maximise profits and thwart competition.
Against this backdrop, online platforms are finding it harder and harder to make the case that they can credibly self-regulate.
Australia’s pioneering ban on social media for children under 16—which went into effect last week—confronts the harms head-on. It represents a landmark intervention in support of children’s wellbeing and mental health and a strident assertion of state authority over the digital environment and over who gets to define its boundaries.
By making age thresholds, access controls and identity verification matters of public policy, Australia is deliberately shifting authority away from platforms and into the hands of government. It is a direct challenge to big tech’s freedom to self-regulate, and an effort to impose clear accountability through government regulation.
Importantly, Australia’s ban has major potential to have a domino effect with other countries watching it closely and some already potentially poised to follow.
Stronger online safety measures offer governments a rare political opportunity. They are broadly supported by the public, aligned with parental concerns and difficult for platforms to credibly oppose. Australia’s neighbors New Zealand and Malaysia are already exploring similar restrictions.
Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed in a recent State of the Union address that the EU was watching closely.
She said: “Our friends in Australia are pioneering a social media restriction…I am watching the implementation of their policy closely to see what next steps we can take here in Europe...I will commission a panel of experts to advise me by the end of this year on the best approach for Europe…Because when it comes to our kids’ safety online, Europe believes in parents, not profits.”
This growing shift to increased regulation could impact not just social media platforms, but the broader platform economy that has long operated with limited regulation.
In a more regulated environment, platforms will increasingly be judged by their ability to deliver genuinely safer digital experiences. Those that invest in safety by design with robust age verification, stronger identity checks and demonstrably safer ecosystems will gain a meaningful reputational and commercial advantage.
At the same time, new platforms will inevitably emerge to circumvent regulations, creating parallel online spaces with minimal oversight (at least until they attract the attention of the authorities). The result is likely to be an increasingly bifurcated digital ecosystem, one characterised by higher safety standards and accountability, the other by limited governance and elevated risk.
This shift will have far reaching implications for brands. Targeting strategies, influencer partnerships, content design and media planning will all need to be reassessed.
Online safety and consumer wellbeing will have to move from secondary considerations to core principles of digital engagement. To remain relevant and trusted, brands will need to rethink how they reach younger audiences and adopt more creative, compliant and value-led approaches.
They will need to bear in mind that attention strategies will be scrutinised for their impact on mental health and there will be growing expectations for youth engagement to focus much more on parents, educators and verified over-16 audiences.
Australia’s bold move offers a clear preview of—a more regulated digital environment that prioritises trust and safety.
That said, enforcement will be complex, contested and anything but straightforward.
The Australian government will need to calibrate with significant potential for unintended impacts to generate community opposition which may then be used by the platform companies to lobby for policy changes. Indeed, there are some that argue that the ban on social media will itself harm young people by pushing them into darker, unmoderated online spaces, limiting their ability to connect with others in minority groups or causing them to be left behind by kids in other countries that are digital social natives from an early age.
Reddit has already launched legal action against Australia’s social media ban for under 16s and other platforms are signalling the likelihood of additional legal challenges. Public scrutiny and sustained lobbying from both advocates and opponents will continue to shape the policy in real time.
It will also be interesting to watch potential geopolitical dynamics particularly given most of the largest online platform companies are American or Chinese.
Regardless, the overall shift to increased regulation of online platforms is set to continue.
Those companies and brands that act now, keeping these shifting dynamics in mind, reassessing their digital environments and prioritising digital safety as a core strategy, will be best positioned to navigate the broader wave of governance measures set to sweep across the world.
Douglas Dew is the APAC head of corporate & public affairs at Burson.
