GoKawiilGovernments Expand Social Media Age Bans as EU Proposes KIDS Act
Following Australia's under-16 social media ban, which restricted 4.7 million accounts but still left one in five teens using TikTok or Snapchat two months later, other governments are adopting similar measures. Indonesia's child safety framework took effect in March, the UK has proposed a ban plus overnight curfews for 16- and 17-year-olds, and the European Commission introduced the EU KIDS Act on 17 September, which would bar under-13s from social media and set 15 as the age for independent account creation.
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The author, who has worked on child online protection with the ITU, argues that bans focus on removing access rather than addressing the recommendation systems and platform design that generate harm in the first place. Early data from Australia suggests bans may be only partially effective at actually keeping children off these platforms, which could mean similar laws elsewhere achieve limited real-world safety gains without deeper platform-level reforms.
- Australia's ban restricted 4.7 million under-16 accounts but one in five teens still used TikTok or Snapchat months later.
- The EU's proposed KIDS Act would ban under-13s and set 15 as the minimum age for independent accounts.
- An ITU-affiliated expert argues bans don't fix underlying platform systems, like recommendation algorithms, that create harm.
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Published there as: “Social Media Bans Aren’t Enough to Make Children Safe”
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