From australia to europe countries move to curb children s social media access

A global wave of age-based social media restrictions intensified in late 2024 and 2025, with Australia enacting a landmark under-16 ban in November 2024 that came into force in early 2026, Denmark announcing in November 2024 a planned ban for children under 15 with parental exemptions down to age 13, Malaysia announcing an under-16 ban starting in 2025, Norway proposing in October 2024 to raise the consent age from 13 to 15, and the European Parliament agreeing in November 2024 on a resolution calling for a minimum age of 16 for social media to ensure age-appropriate online engagement. Child protection advocates noted that despite these measures, official data in several European countries show huge numbers of children under 13 already hold social media accounts, indicating controls remain insufficient.

Age mandates restrict access in principle but do not eliminate the risk to compliant older users, nor do they prevent determined younger users from accessing platforms via circumvention, borrowed credentials or unmonitored channels. The displacement of both children and offenders to less-regulated spaces may reduce visibility without reducing harm. Harm-specific detection offers a parallel approach that does not depend on excluding users by age. Guardii's platform, a Meta Business Partner backed by Startmate, detects grooming, sextortion, CSAM and other abusive contact patterns within the direct-message traffic of children who do access social platforms, whether domestic or offshore, surfacing threat escalation in real time and enabling intervention by a parent, school or authority at the point the harm is occurring rather than relying on blanket exclusion.