The Great Break in Australia: The End of the Government–Social Media Alliance?

Why is the new law in Australia—which prohibits access to social networks for minors under 16—so important?

The answer has to do with a radical change in how Generation Z uses social media. This generation is becoming the first to consume more content than it creates.

It’s not that previous generations were creating dozens of Facebook posts for every one they consumed. Still, they were much more likely to share—first with their immediate circle and then with the world—anything they found meaningful, from personal photos to travel updates. The fact that Australia is one of the first countries to restrict access to social media for those under 16 becomes a fundamental issue because it illustrates the complexity of a world that has shifted from creators to consumers of content.

The Paradox of Mass Conversion

In an act of pure irony, social networks are turning into mass media, and the idea that a platform created more than 20 years ago is still considered innovative is, frankly, laughable. Facebook is, in many ways, a modern traditional medium—if those two terms can even coexist. The same applies to Twitter and, to a great extent, Pinterest and several other platforms.

Limiting a 13-year-old's access to an account is the Australian government’s attempt to restrict young people’s access to content whose sole purpose is to be consumed, with increasing voracity, for more hours each day.

This effort also relates to the complexity of the content presented to users—content driven by algorithms seeking interaction that, by their very nature, often shows users things that are either very funny or potentially very harmful, especially for the youngest audiences.

Marketing Implications and the Broken Alliance

From a marketing standpoint, this signals a rupture—at least in one country—between the government and the absorption and generation of content, something that had not happened before in an English-speaking nation.

That Australia would be the first in the Anglosphere speaks to a break in the implicit alliance that existed between governments and social media platforms to promote content, and this has significant implications.

First, from the perspective of political promotion: if younger audiences are not exposed to a wider range of media, social positions, news, and political views from an early age, this affects their pre-voting exposure. But also, by distancing younger consumers, the government seeks to protect them from excessively commercial messages and, to some extent, from influencers whose content may not be intended for such young audiences.

The Challenge of Regulation and the Internet’s Memory

It is also true that these regulatory intentions may have more good intentions than good outcomes.

The reality is that although a consumer may need an account to create content, they do not necessarily need one to consume it. They could easily see content on their parents’, older siblings’, or classmates’ phones. The ubiquity of social media content is such that—even if the goals of the law are noble—it’s unlikely the initiative will achieve its most ambitious objectives.

Finally, for brands, this presents both a lesson and a new path: restrictive realities are emerging in a field that traditionally experienced little to no government regulation.

Brands must now be much more careful with the content they publish online, because the Internet has the best memory. Once something is uploaded, it is difficult to erase and will inevitably become part of the collective imagination.

This is a wake-up call for governments around the world, for social media platforms themselves—which have lately drifted away from the charm they once held for users and are increasingly criticized—and, lastly, for brands, which must understand that the true purpose of the brand-consumer relationship is precisely that: the relationship. With that in mind, they should focus on creating lasting and relevant bonds with consumers—bonds that do not require passing through algorithmic, media-driven platforms.