Australia's Social Media Ban for Under-16s: A Blueprint for European Child Protection Against Gambling Harm

Australia has implemented the world’s first comprehensive social media ban for users under 16 years old, effective December 10, 2025. As European policymakers consider similar measures, the legislation offers crucial lessons for protecting children from gambling advertising and harmful content that has become endemic across digital platforms.

Australia introduced legislation requiring major social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, YouTube, X (Twitter), Reddit, Twitch, Threads and Kick to prevent anyone under 16 from creating or maintaining accounts. The Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024 was passed by the Australian Parliament on November 28-29, 2024, with enforcement beginning December 10, 2025.

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Technology companies face fines of up to AUD $49.5 million (approximately $32 million USD or €30 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to prevent underage users from accessing their platforms. Importantly, no penalties apply to young people or their parents who access age-restricted platforms—the responsibility lies entirely with the social media companies.

Europe’s Gambling Harm Crisis

The Australian legislation arrives as Europe grapples with a mounting child protection crisis related to gambling advertising and content on social media platforms. Research from UK charity GambleAware reveals that 79% of children say they want more rules around gambling content and advertising on social media, while 74% of adults support increased regulation of gambling advertising on these platforms.

Data shows that 87% of young people have seen gambling content online, with 16% having seen content creators and influencers advertise gambling directly. Perhaps most concerning, 36% of boys aged 16-17 reported taking part in gambling activities after seeing celebrities promoting or participating in gambling.

Anna Hargrave, GambleAware Transition CEO, emphasized the urgency of the situation: “Gambling operators invest significant resources into online marketing because it works at getting people to gamble more. This has resulted in children and young people being exposed to gambling content online before an age at which they can critically evaluate it and understand the risks that come with it.”

The Social Media-Gambling Connection

Research indicates that children around the world are being exposed to intensive marketing for gambling products, normalizing perceptions that gambling is essentially harmless entertainment despite mounting evidence of the harms it causes. In Australia, expenditure on gambling advertising more than tripled between 2011 and 2020 to over $270 million, excluding social media, sponsorships and in-program content.

Social media poses unique challenges as parents may be unaware of advertisements on these platforms, limiting discussions that may take place with young people about marketing they see. Advertising via social media may be particularly appealing to young people because postings might not be recognized as advertising, and content can be shared and promoted by peers, including to underage users.

The gambling industry has exploited social media’s algorithmic systems and influencer culture to reach minors at unprecedented scale. Research indicates that celebrities in gambling advertisements make children and young people feel gambling is fun (64%), cool (59%), exciting to try (57%), and an easy way to make money (56%).

What Europe Can Learn

The European Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection Committee has already proposed an EU-wide digital minimum age of 16 for access to social media, video sharing platforms and AI companions, unless authorized by parents. The committee also called for mandatory safety-by-design measures and a ban on harmful engagement mechanisms including loot boxes—a form of gambling-like game feature—for minors.

Australia’s approach offers several valuable lessons for European policymakers:

Platform Accountability: The legislation places responsibility squarely on social media companies rather than penalizing children or families, creating financial incentives for platforms to implement effective age verification systems. This model could be extended to gambling advertising compliance in Europe.

Comprehensive Coverage: The ban covers major platforms where gambling content proliferates, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. European regulations should adopt similar comprehensive approaches rather than piecemeal restrictions.

One-Year Implementation Period: Social media companies receive a one-year transition period to introduce reasonable controls, allowing time to develop effective age assurance technologies while maintaining regulatory pressure.

Privacy Protections: The legislation prohibits platforms from using or disclosing personal information collected for age verification purposes for any other use without consent, addressing legitimate privacy concerns raised by child rights advocates.

Europe’s Regulatory Gap

Research from the University of Bristol commissioned by GambleAware shows that Great Britain has the strongest evidence of gambling marketing’s harms but some of Europe’s fewest restrictions. Despite British universities producing almost 500 published research papers on gambling harm over the last decade—more than Italy, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium combined—the UK has no primary legislation regulating gambling marketing on TV, radio, online or in sport.

GambleAware research director Anna Hargrave noted that current regulations covering gambling marketing and advertising online were designed before most children had easy access to the internet. The same regulatory lag exists across much of Europe, with outdated frameworks failing to address the algorithmic targeting and influencer marketing that now dominate social media.

The Public Health Imperative

Adolescent gambling has been associated with relationship breakdown, physical ill-health, decreased academic performance, job loss, debt, violence, crime, homelessness, and suicide. UK data estimates that 0.9% of 11- to 15-year-olds are problem gamblers (approximately 31,000 young people) with an additional 1.3% at risk of problem gambling (45,000 young people).

Professor Siân Griffiths CBE, Chair of GambleAware Trustees, emphasized: “We have long been concerned about the impact gambling ads and marketing can have on children and young people. This is why urgent action is needed to protect the next generation from experiencing harm.”

Implementation Challenges

YouTube and other platforms have criticized the Australian legislation as “rushed,” with YouTube warning the law “will not fulfill its promise to make kids safer online”. A legal challenge was launched by the Digital Freedom Project in the High Court, arguing the laws violate the implied right to political communication in the Constitution.

However, public support remains strong: polling conducted by YouGov revealed that 77% of Australians support the age limit, with 87% agreeing that social media companies that fail to comply should face stronger penalties.

A European Framework

Europe should adopt and adapt Australia’s model while addressing specific regional concerns:

Gambling-Specific Protections: Extend age restrictions to gambling advertising and content, not just platform access. The European Parliament has already identified targeted ads, influencer marketing, and loot boxes as persuasive technologies that should be tackled under the future Digital Fairness Act.
Cross-Border Enforcement: Develop EU-wide standards for age verification that respect privacy rights while preventing children from accessing gambling content through VPNs or foreign-registered accounts.
Industry Responsibility: Following lessons from harmful industries like tobacco and alcohol, recognize that voluntary curbs and self-regulation are ineffective and often used to prevent or delay meaningful regulation.
Comprehensive Marketing Bans: Implement restrictions on gambling marketing across Europe, which is increasingly becoming the norm in response to public health concerns. Countries including Italy, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium have already introduced significant restrictions.

Moving Forward

Anna Hargrave’s assessment that “urgent action is needed to update these rules and bring them into the digital age to help keep children and young people safe from gambling harm” applies equally to Europe as to Australia.

The Australian social media ban represents an imperfect but necessary first step in reasserting public health priorities over commercial interests in the digital age. For Europe, the lesson is clear: waiting for perfect solutions or relying on industry self-regulation has allowed an entire generation of children to be exposed to gambling marketing before they can critically evaluate its risks.

As Zoë Osmond OBE, CEO of GambleAware, stated: “It is unacceptable that children’s environments continue to be flooded with age-restricted content. Consistent exposure to influencer-driven gambling content contributes to the normalization of gambling amongst school-aged children.”

European policymakers must act decisively. The evidence is overwhelming, public support is strong, and the harms are well-documented. Australia has shown that comprehensive platform regulation is legislatively possible. Europe should follow suit—not despite the implementation challenges, but because protecting children from predatory gambling marketing is too important to delay any longer.

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