Days after Australia turned the primary nation on the earth to ban social media for under-16 youngsters, Reddit has sued the nation’s authorities for what the message board web site has known as an intrusion on free political discourse.
It’s the second such authorized problem in opposition to the landmark social media ban, after two youngsters representing an Australian libertarian group filed a lawsuit final month. Though the ban went into impact from December 10, firms like Meta started deactivating the accounts of under-16 customers a number of days prior.
Whereas younger Australians are nonetheless coming to phrases with their new actuality of not having an account on Tiktok and Instagram, mother and father, researchers, lawmakers, and authorities officers all over the world, together with in India, are carefully watching how the first-of-its-kind social media ban is unfolding.
Some nations like Denmark and Malaysia are already planning to impose comparable restrictions, and Australia’s expertise could present a regulatory template for lawmakers in these international locations. Moreover Australia, no different nation has carried out a complete ban on youngsters utilizing social media but, and present on-line security legal guidelines all over the world principally deal with age-gating content material. Right here’s a take a look at how some international locations are regulating youngsters’s entry to social media.
India
Whereas India doesn’t have a regulation particularly to control the usage of social media platforms by youngsters, underneath the Digital Private Information Safety Act, 2023, tech firms are required to implement a mechanism for gathering “verifiable” parental consent earlier than processing private information of youngsters, regardless that it doesn’t prescribe a specific technical measure to gather such consent. As per India’s regulation, a baby has been outlined as a person beneath the age of 18.
The regulation additionally directs firms to not course of private information of youngsters in circumstances the place it may trigger any detrimental impact on the well-being of a kid, and never monitoring or participating in behavioural monitoring or focused promoting directed at youngsters.
European Union
The European Union’s Digital Companies Act (DSA) has broad provisions to curb the dissemination of political misinformation to all social media customers. Nevertheless it doesn’t particularly handle social media harms posed to youngsters.
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Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Fee, has stated that she has been learning Australia’s restrictions and the way they handle what she described as “algorithms that prey on youngsters’s vulnerabilities” on condition that many mother and father really feel powerless in opposition to “the tsunami of huge tech flooding their properties”.
Final month, the European parliament known as for an Australia-like social media ban for under-16 customers. In July, Denmark, Greece, France, Spain, and Italy had been chosen to be a part of a pilot programme to trial an age verification app that might doubtlessly be launched throughout the EU and could be carried out by grownup content material websites in addition to different digital suppliers.
France
In 2023, France launched a requirement that platforms should receive parental consent for kids underneath 15 to create social media accounts. However it’s but to be enforced. Additionally it is reportedly contemplating a social media ban for kids underneath 15, together with a 10-hour curfew for platform use for kids between 15 to 18 years outdated.
Norway
In July this yr, Norway introduced plans to limit entry to social media for underneath 15s. The federal government stated that the regulation could be “designed in accordance with youngsters’s elementary rights, together with freedom of expression, entry to data, and the proper to affiliation,” in accordance with a report by The Dialog.
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Denmark
In November 2025, Denmark introduced it might ban social media entry for all customers within the nation underneath 15 years. However, in contrast to Australia’s crackdown, mother and father in Denmark would be capable to override the principles to allow 13- and 14-year-olds to retain platform entry. Nevertheless, it’s anticipated to take months to move the laws and the timeline for implementation of the ban can be unclear.
United States
Many US state legal guidelines require age verification, however just for web sites that host porn. The nation has additionally strongly opposed Australia’s social media restrictions, with US President Donald Trump saying that he would stand as much as any international locations that “attacked” American expertise firms. The US Congress has additionally known as Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman-Grant to testify earlier than it, after American tech firms alleged that they’ve been unfairly focused by the social media ban.
New Zealand
In October, New Zealand introduced it might introduce comparable laws to Australia’s, following the work of a parliamentary committee to look at how finest to deal with hurt on social media platforms. The committee’s report will likely be launched in early 2026.
Malaysia
Malaysia has introduced it can ban youngsters underneath 16 from social media beginning in 2026. This follows the nation requiring social media and messaging platforms with eight million or extra customers to acquire licenses to function, and use age verification and content-safety measures from January 2025.
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South Korea
South Korea has determined in opposition to a social media ban for kids. However it can ban the usage of cellphones and different units in school rooms beginning in March 2026.