A wave of concern for the wellbeing of young people is prompting governments across Europe to consider restrictions on social media access for children, following Australia’s lead in implementing a nationwide ban. While no European nation has yet fully mirrored the Australian policy, discussions are underway in numerous countries, including Norway, Greece, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, and the Netherlands, with the European Union increasingly supportive of the principle.
Australia became the first country in the world to outlaw social media accounts for children under 16 in December . The ban applies to platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, X, YouTube, and Reddit, though exceptions remain for online gaming and messaging services like WhatsApp. The policy relies on social media firms to enforce age restrictions.
The move has resonated with European leaders grappling with the potential harms of social media on youth mental health and development. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz believes social media regulation could help prevent “personality deficits and problems in the social behavior of young people.” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez aims to protect children from a “digital wild west,” while French President Emmanuel Macron has stated that “the emotions of our children and teenagers are not for sale or to be manipulated.”
However, the Australian experience, while attracting attention, is not without its complexities. According to figures released by Australia’s eSafety Commissioner, Julie Inman Grant, social media companies removed approximately 4.7 million accounts identified as belonging to children under 16 in the first half of December. No more recent figures have been released.
Experts caution that headline numbers don’t tell the whole story. Tama Leaver, a professor of internet studies at Curtin University in Perth, Australia, points out the lack of detailed data. “We don’t have a breakdown of that number, nor do we know how many new accounts — possibly from teens pretending to be older — were created over the same period of time,” he said. Anecdotal evidence suggests many young people have circumvented the ban, while others have been removed from some platforms but not others.
Leaver also highlights the limitations of age verification methods. “On a technical level, the limitations and imprecise nature of trying to verify age using selfies and other tools was also pretty much as inaccurate as most people expected in advance,” he added.
The speed with which European governments are considering similar bans has surprised some observers. Susan Sawyer, from Australia’s Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, expressed her surprise, stating, “I had expected there would be much more of a watchful expectancy of the results of the Australian ban before governments would be jumping in quite as quickly.” She emphasized the need for careful evaluation, warning that social media bans are not a “silver bullet” to the problem.
Sawyer’s research indicates that 10–13-year-olds, particularly girls, are most vulnerable to the adverse effects of social media. She anticipates that any changes in Europe will be a “slow burn,” as societal norms shift and younger generations grow up with different levels of access.
Leaver advocates for a more measured approach, suggesting a staggered introduction of bans and more extensive consultation with children. “The most confused group are those 13-15 year olds who already had social media accounts, were booted off the platforms, and then will come back on at 16,” he said. “It would have made a lot more sense to grandfather the rules, so under 13s can’t get accounts until 16, but those with existing accounts keep access. I think a lot of 13-15 year olds feel like the ban was done to them, rather than with them.”
The applicability of the Australian model to Europe is also being questioned. Stephan Dreyer, from the Leibniz Institute for Media Research in Hamburg, believes that Europe’s existing regulatory framework, particularly the Digital Services Act passed last year, already addresses many safety concerns. He also points to the complexities of enforcing a ban across multiple countries within the EU, given the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and fundamental rights considerations.
“The lesson for Europe is cautionary,” Dreyer said. “Australia illustrates the gap between the political appeal of decisive prohibition and the technical and rights-related complexities of implementation. Age verification at scale requires either comprehensive control infrastructure or probabilistic profiling, with both approaches showing deep intrusions into the rights of all users. Europe, with its stronger fundamental rights frameworks and the GDPR, would face these tensions even more acutely. We should learn from Australia’s difficulties, not rush to replicate them.”
As European nations weigh their options, the debate highlights the delicate balance between protecting children and safeguarding their rights in the digital age. The Australian experiment serves as a crucial, if imperfect, case study, offering valuable lessons for policymakers navigating this complex landscape.
