After years of debate, 2026 could be the year governments around the world take action to children use social networks.
Australia, France, Denmark and Norway are promoting or planning to ban social media for young people under a certain age. In the US, patchwork government efforts are likely to face more difficult prospects.
The changes come as concerns grow about the damage being caused by platforms such as TikTok, YouTube and Snapchat. can take on young people's mental health.
French President Emmanuel Macron on New Year's Eve speechreaffirmed its support for banning social media for children and teenagers, setting the tone for what could be a landmark year for such efforts around the world.
“We will protect our children and teenagers from social media and screens,” he said.
Talk about a ban on social networks has become action
World leaders have been talking about limiting children's access to social media for years. Now those conversations are turning into action. Australia became the first major country to ban social networks for children under 16 years old. The law came into force in December.
Macron wants France to follow Australia's lead. Bills in the works would limit access for children under 15 starting next fall, coinciding with the start of the new school year.
The Malaysian government has said it intends to introduce a similar ban this year. Denmark also plans to ban children under 15, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said. announced in October, warning that “never before have so many children and young people suffered from anxiety and depression”. Norway too considering such measuresalthough his prime minister acknowledged that enforcing the law would not be easy.
In December, Indian high court judges suggested the country consider legislation based on the Australian approach.
Social media companies say measures are too extreme
Social media executives criticize bans on their productstouting their own security measures, questioning the feasibility of such measures, and warning of unintended consequences.
Regarding the Australian law, Google and Meta have called for its implementation to be delayed. They said the government should rely on the age verification system, which was being tested before the new law came into force.
“We want young people to have a safe, age-appropriate online experience and have spent a decade developing more than 50 tools and policies designed to protect them,” a Meta spokesperson told Business Insider last year in response to the EU's debate on youth and social media.
Elon Musk, owner of X, has criticized Australia's legislation, calling it a “backdoor way of controlling internet access for all Australians.” TikTok expressed “serious concerns” about the legislation.
An intricate patchwork quilt in the USA
Meanwhile, the nationwide effort in the United States – home to the world's largest social media companies – faces an uphill battle.
Although lawmakers in Congress have put forward proposals to restrict young people's access, none have passed. Instead, efforts have largely shifted to states where a plethora of age verification rules, parental consent laws and time limits are evolving, often amid legal challenges.
Virginia is moving to impose a one-hour daily limit on social media use for children under 16 unless parents opt out. The law, which is due to come into force this year, but is already facing legal challenges. Nebraska recently passed a law requiring parental consent for minors to open social media accounts. Other states, including Utah and Florida, have advanced age verification or parental consent laws that have been delayed or blocked in court.
Some states are targeting smartphones, not just social media, imposing “ban on mobile phones “from call to call” in public schools.
14 state attorneys general sued TikTok in October, saying the app was addictive and damaging to children's mental health. TikTok disputes that its products harm children, defending its internal safety measures.
While efforts to protect children from social media are gaining momentum, some industry observers warn that such efforts are not a magic solution and may have unexpected side effects.
“While UNICEF welcomes the growing commitment to children's online safety, social media bans come with their own risks and may even backfire,” UNICEF, the U.N. children's agency, said in a December statement, noting that some marginalized children rely on social media and others may find workarounds or gravitate to dark corners of the internet.
