👉 Background: Ever since social media took off in the early 2000’s, it’s become a pretty revolutionary way to connect with your friends, overseas family and people you met in a hostel 7 years ago. But while there are benefits, we also know about the impact it has had on the mental health of teen girls and boys.

👉 What happened: Now, the Australian government will restrict Australians under the age of 16 from accessing social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, even with parental consent. But the implementation is on the social media tech companies - they need to prove that they’re taking reasonable steps to assure themselves of a user’s age.

👉 What else: Social media companies aren’t too thrilled about this Australian law because a big chunk of their engagement and revenue comes from this cohort. And this could set a precedent for other countries to ban social media for underage users too.

What's the key learning?

💡One bold decision today can set a precedent for many more bold decisions in the future.

💡Australia’s decision to ban social media for under 16s is a world-first - so that means other countries are waiting and watching to see the impact of this law and may potentially roll it out themselves. In fact, the UK is also leaning towards rolling out something similar.

💡For social media giants like TikTok and Meta, they generate a bucket load of revenue from this demographic:

• Instagram made $4 billion USD of its ad revenue, from users aged between 14-17 last year
  
• TikTok earned $2 billion USD from under-agers
  
• YouTube made $1.2 billion USD

So if this social media ban takes off around the world, it could seriously impact their earnings.