ACROSS the world, governments are moving decisively to regulate children’s access to social media, signalling a growing consensus for the need to adequately protect minors online where they are susceptible to child exploitation, harmful content exposure, cyberbullying and concerning mental health outcomes.
According to media reports, Australia became the first nation to enforce a sweeping, nationwide ban on social media for children under 16 in December 2025.
Platforms including Instagram, Facebook, Threads, X, Snapchat, Kick, Twitch, TikTok, Reddit and YouTube are now required to block young users under the new law in Australia.
While parents and children themselves are exempt from liability, big tech companies face penalties of up to US$32 million for breaches.
The just reported settlement by TikTok shows that the issue is sow receiving some deserved attention. Just in 2025, dozens of US states sued Meta alleging the company misled the public over risks of social media use to youth mental health crisis.
France is also fast-tracking restrictions for children under 15 years, with plans to enforce strict age-verification mechanisms through the European Digital Services Act.
In similar fashion, the United Kingdom is implementing the Online Safety Act, significantly strengthening age-verification and content-moderation obligations for technology firms.
The UK government is currently reviewing whether the digital age of consent of 13 years is too low, amid growing concern that children are being exposed to addictive and harmful content far too early.
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Notably, the UK is now actively exploring an Australian-style ban, particularly in response to the rise of harmful artificial intelligence-generated content.
According to Al Jazeera, the UK government has launched a public consultation on implementing such a ban, alongside broader measures to protect minors.
UK ministers are expected to visit Australia to study the policy’s implementation.
The consultation is reported to include options such as raising the digital age of consent, introducing phone curfews to curb excessive use and restricting addictive design features like “streaks” and “infinite scrolling.”
Denmark plans a ban for children under 15 years. Although most social media platforms already prohibit users under 13 and EU law mandates protective measures for minors, evidence suggests these safeguards are largely ineffective.
Danish authorities report that approximately 98% of children under 13 have at least one social media profile and nearly half of them are under 10 years old.
This stark gap between policy and reality highlights why stronger, enforceable regulation rather than reliance on platform self-reporting is increasingly seen as essential.
Malaysia, Greece, Pakistan and New Zealand are considering the Australian approach, according to Techzim.
Other countries are taking different regulatory approaches: India, Italy, Germany and Spain are exploring verifiable parental consent for young social media users, Singapore mandates rapid removal of harmful content; South Korea and Japan focus on combating defamation and harmful material and China operates tightly controlled national platforms.
Collectively, these measures reflect a global recognition that children require enhanced legal protections in digital spaces.
Implications of social media bans in first-world countries
While many of these policies are still in early stages, they have already sparked significant debate.
Experts acknowledge that social media bans will not completely resolve the issue on their own, but they represent an important corrective step in addressing a digital ecosystem that has not consistently prioritised child safety and wellbeing.
Implications for the African landscape
African nations are also responding to the urgent need for child online protection, though within very different social, economic and technological contexts. Zimbabwe is not alone in its regulatory efforts.
Several African nations are launching comprehensive frameworks to tackle the unique challenges of the continent’s young, mobile-first population. Ghana recently launched the National Child Online Protection (COP) Framework, which emphasises a multi-stakeholder approach involving teachers, parents and traditional leaders to create a “sanitised” digital environment for children.
In late 2025, Zambia unveiled its National Child Online Protection Strategy. This strategy focuses on strengthening national systems to ensure children can navigate the digital age without fear of harm, emphasising that the digital economy must not be built at the expense of children’s safety.
However, directly replicating Western-style social media bans presents serious challenges for many African countries.
Technological ecosystems and enforcement capacities are often less developed, making reliable age verification and monitoring difficult.
Wholesale bans could also unintentionally restrict access to educational resources, digital skills development and peer networks that are vital for meaningful participation in the global digital economy.
Additionally, African governments may lack the budgets, technical enforcement systems or digital literacy infrastructure to implement and monitor bans effectively.
These realities underscore the need for context-specific solutions that prioritise child protection without undermining developmental opportunities.
Potential regulatory benefits
These include reduced exposure to harmful content, including pornography, violence, grooming and extremist material; lower risks of cyberbullying and addiction driven by algorithmic recommendation systems and improved mental health outcomes by reducing constant social comparison, validation-seeking and online peer pressure.
Considerations and potential implications
There are fears that restrictions may lead some children to seek alternative or less regulated online spaces, which could complicate safety efforts, reduce some positive uses of social media, including educational content, creative expression, social connection, peer support and opportunities for civic participation and that implementation may present practical and privacy-related challenges.
Also age-verification approaches can be difficult to apply consistently and raise legitimate concerns around privacy, data protection and equitable enforcement.
Bans alone are unlikely to address online risks comprehensively and may have implications for children’s rights to information and expression.
For this reason, many experts argue that bans must be paired with complementary measures, including strong parental involvement, platform-level parental controls, transparency obligations for algorithms and robust child-focused digital education. Regulation should be understood not as censorship, but as a necessary safeguard in environments proven to be unsafe for children.
Recommendations
Our call to action is that African governments need to firstly develop comprehensive, context-specific child online safety policies that address cyberbullying, grooming, exploitation, harmful content and data protection.
Encouragingly, some countries are already pursuing balanced approaches. Ghana’s Child Online Protection Department (Cyber Security Authority Ghana 2024) and Zambia’s Child Online Protection Strategy, demonstrate that it is possible to strengthen child safety without resorting to blanket bans.
Sustained investment in digital literacy for children, parents and caregivers; and curriculum reform that embeds healthy digital habits, critical thinking and data protection from an early age are a necessity.
Protecting children online is a moral, social and legal imperative. African countries have a timely opportunity to lead with smart, context-aware frameworks that put children’s safety, dignity and future at the heart of digital transformation.
