Facing evidence of a youth mental health crisis, countries are banning social media for minors.
Governments across the globe have started to move away from soft guidelines towards hard legal bans on social media access for minors. This global policy shift is driven by mounting evidence of social media-driven mental health crises, addictive platform designs, and rising cybercrime. Australia recently enacted a nationwide ban for those under 16. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia and Malaysia have introduced regulations to block under-16s from social media platforms. From January 2027, France will implement a law banning children under 15 from social media . Under these new rules, every user in France will eventually need to verify their age to access platforms. The United Kingdom and the European Union are currently drafting and deliberating on legislation to protect children in the digital space.