After U.S. jury verdicts that validated concerns about the risks social media can pose to young people, attention has turned to how other countries are trying to regulate those platforms. In the U.S., critics say there is still no federal rule that meaningfully addresses the harms at issue in the cases.
This week’s findings followed two trials that, according to the reporting, helped sharpen the argument for regulation. On Wednesday, a Los Angeles jury found both Meta and YouTube liable for harms to children using their services. A day earlier, a jury in New Mexico determined that Meta knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed what it knew about child sexual exploitation on its platforms.
Parents and children’s advocates cheered the outcomes, but the same reporting said they doubt the verdicts will be enough without federal action. Many are focused on the Kids Online Safety Act, which won Senate approval in 2024 but has lingered since, and which is designed to protect children from harms tied to social media, gaming sites and other online platforms.
Beyond the U.S., countries described in the roundup are taking different approaches—from outright age cutoffs to requiring parental or guardian supervision, to tightening platform licensing rules, and to limiting design features regulators say can make services more addictive for minors.
Australia is one of the clearest examples: in 2024, it became the first country to bar children under 16 from social media. The law makes platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, Reddit, X and Instagram, liable for fines of up to 50 million Australian dollars (about $34 million) if they fail to prevent children younger than 16 from holding accounts. Some experts, however, have questioned how well age-estimation methods work in practice because platforms are not required to ask users for government-issued IDs, and critics also warn the ban could affect free speech, social connections and privacy. They also raised a concern that the measure could impact privacy for all users, since those users must prove they are older than 16.
Brazil has moved in another direction by focusing less on banning access and more on supervised access and design limits. The report says a law that took effect this month requires children under 16 to link their social media accounts to a legal guardian to ensure supervision. It also prohibits platforms from using addictive features, including infinite scroll and the automatic play of videos, and it requires digital services to implement an age-verification mechanism that goes beyond self-declaration.
Indonesia, the reporting says, is preparing to impose an age cutoff modeled in part on Australia’s. It plans to ban social media accounts for children under 16 on “high-risk” digital platforms that include YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox. The implementation is set to start gradually from March 28 until all platforms comply, and the report describes Indonesia as the first country in Southeast Asia to restrict children’s access to social media.
Malaysia is taking a different regulatory path that the report ties to wider oversight of digital platforms. Since January 2025, major social media and messaging services with at least 8 million users in Malaysia are required to obtain a license, part of a broader tightening of state oversight over digital platforms. Licensed platforms must implement age verification, content-safety measures and transparency rules, reflecting the government’s push for a safer digital space, and Malaysia also plans to ban kids under 16 from social media beginning this year.
Europe and the UK are also looking at restrictions, though the details differ by country. The reporting says Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced in February that Spain plans to limit social media access for children under 16. In France, a bill approved in January would ban social media for children under 15 and bar the use of mobile phones in high schools; it is intended to take effect at the start of the next school year in September, after the French government previously passed a law banning phones in all primary and middle schools. Denmark has introduced similar legislation to ban social media access for users under 15, while the UK said last month it would consider banning young teenagers from social media as it tightens laws aimed at protecting children from harmful content and excessive screen time.