Australia this week became the first country to bar anyone under the age of 16 from gaining access to social media apps like Facebook, Instagram and TikTok as part of a push to prevent children from being exposed to the potential harm caused by using the platforms.
The decision has stirred debate, with some people expressing skepticism that the law will have much effect, and questions about how a ban will be enforced. Technology companies have pushed back against the rules, and some privacy and rights groups have said that a blanket ban could push children to less well-regulated parts of the internet.
But a number of other governments could follow suit. Some, like New Zealand, have said they would talk to their Australian counterparts as they develop their own policies to limit how much time children spend on social media.
Here are some of the countries and regions weighing whether to adopt a similarly aggressive approach as Australia or taking a different tack.
Denmark
Denmark could be become the first European country to follow Australia’s lead and introduce a national age limit for using social media. In November, the government announced a plan to bar anyone under 15 from using the platforms.
The Danish proposal does not go as far as Australia’s, as parents would be allowed to give children from the age of 13 permission to use social media. Still, if the proposal becomes law, Denmark would have the most sweeping restrictions in the European Union.
“We are taking a necessary stand against a development where large tech platforms have had free rein in children’s rooms for far too long,” Caroline Stage Olsen, Denmark’s minister for digital affairs, said in a statement when the plan was announced.
The government cited evidence that tech companies had built their business models around the retention of users, and she said in a separate statement that this could lead to addiction.
The government has not explained how the ban would be enforced, but some lawmakers hope the measures could become law as soon as next year.
Malaysia
In November, the government announced plans to bar children under 16 from using social media starting in 2026.
The communications ministry said it was considering measures to force Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok to verify users’ ages. One way of doing that would be to use an electronic Know Your Customer, or eKYC, system. These are used by financial institutions to verify a person’s identity using identification cards, biometric authentication and other government-issued documents.
Last week, Fahmi Fadzil, the communications minister, told local news media that he would consult the Australian authorities for guidance on how to carry out a similar ban.
The European Union
The European Union has historically been one of the toughest regulators of tech companies, and senior officials have suggested that they could go further, including adopting similar tactics to Australia’s.
In September, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the European Union, urged member states to pay attention to the new laws.
“I strongly believe that parents, not algorithms, should be raising our children,” she said in her State of the Union speech. “Our friends in Australia are pioneering a social media restriction.”
Ms. von der Leyen said she would convene a panel of experts to advise her on how the bloc should respond by the end of this year.
Lawmakers in France, Spain and Romania have also floated the idea of following Australia’s ban.
Britain
Instead of a blanket ban on social media for children, Britain has used existing privacy laws to try to limit access to content deemed harmful.
In July, the government passed a law that requires users to prove they are older than 18 to get access to online information that could be deemed harmful. The law forced pornography sites, as well some dating and chat apps, to introduce age checks or face a hefty fine.
China
China has some of the tightest restrictions on internet usage in the world, blocking many Western platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat from operating in the mainland.
But the country has a wide array of homegrown social media sites, including Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, and the authorities have imposed limits on how much time children can spend on such platforms.
In 2021, Beijing restricted the amount of time that children could spend playing video games to three hours a week, 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Two years ago, the country’s internet regulator proposed tightening the restrictions by limiting children younger than 8 to 40 minutes of smartphone usage a day. The limit would increase with age, reaching two hours daily for those 16 to 18.
The United States
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act prevents companies from collecting the personal data of users under 13. But a blanket social media ban for children would be difficult to enact in the United States, partly because states have their own laws.
Some states have moved to restrict usage, but those efforts have been challenged in court on free-speech grounds.
Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
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