When Australia’s under-16 social media ban came into effect in December, the industry braced for disruption.
Millions of accounts were removed from platforms including Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, prompting questions about how brands would reach younger audiences in a post-ban environment.
Insiders told Mediaweek the immediate fallout has been minimal, though it has forced many agencies to rethink their social media strategies.
Early impact proves limited
Enigma Justin Ladmore chief media officer and partner Justin Ladmore said engagement, response rates and overall performance have remained consistent, with no clear disruption in outcomes.
“There’s been no shift in how we plan, buy or optimise,” he said.
“We’re keeping a close eye on it, but in the short term we expect minimal impact.”
Hypetap managing director Bryce Coombe noted that the ban hasn’t changed the agency’s approach, as teens were not their target audience.
“There might be some slight variations in the total number of users and minutes engaged with the platform, but nothing that seismically shifts the needle for brands or agencies like ours,” he told Mediaweek.
“If there is any impact, it is hopefully on the somewhat lazy, volume-based media buying that many agencies were trying to execute in social channels.”
Bread Agency general manager Emelie Jessika Lundberg echoed this, saying the company hasn’t seen any immediate impact on client work
“However, it has made us reflect on how younger audiences will engage with platforms over time,” she said.
“As these audiences move faster between platforms, brands will need to rely less on scale and more on cultural signals, understanding language, behaviours and values, rather than just platform metrics.”
Bench Media digital director Jess Torstennsson described the change as largely positive.
“With platforms now required to prevent under 16 accounts, age signals within platforms should become more accurate,” she said.
“This reduces impressions served to audiences that were never commercially relevant, improves targeting confidence, and allows optimisation to work off cleaner data, ultimately driving more efficient media investment in a post-restriction landscape.”
While the immediate operational impact may be limited, many agencies see the ban as a catalyst for strategic change.
Connected Media founder Laura Hamod Barnes said the agency supports the social media ban, viewing it as an important step in protecting Australian children.
“Like the vast majority of agencies that buy media, responsible media planning has always been central to how we operate, and the social media ban has not materially altered how we do that,” she said.
“While the new social media law is still in its relative infancy, I’m not expecting to see dramatic changes in how we, and our clients, work with social media platforms.”
Strategic rethink for agencies
One Green Bean senior account director, Josh Britt, said the ban marks a “major shift” in how the agency thinks about online advertising.
“At first glance, it’s a positive step, with future generations set to benefit from improved online safety and mental health,” he said.
“For agencies, however, it doesn’t eliminate social-first strategies; it simply delays their impact. Entry points to social media will need to evolve, shifting towards curated brand communities and integrated experiences.”
M+C Saatchi’s Passions & PR managing partner Rhian Mason said the ban forces agencies to use social media more intentionally.
‘Until now, brands have treated social platforms as infinite distribution channels, optimising for reach and frequency. The ban is a clear signal that those assumptions no longer hold,” she said.
“For marketers, this accelerates a shift away from volume and towards participation.
“In a more regulated, trust-constrained environment, the brands that win will be the ones that create meaning people opt into, not noise they scroll past.”
Edge Marketing founder Dan Hunjas echoed this perspective, saying the ban exposed brands that over-relied on social media.
“Not everyone played that game, but many did, particularly those over-indexing on under 16 reach, because it was easy, cheap and weakly scrutinised,” he said.
“Social media still has a role, but it’s a supporting act, not the foundation. Brands that built growth models around age-targeted social reach will feel pain, brands that invested in fundamentals will barely notice.”
Moving beyond the social feed
SICKDOGWOLFMAN strategy director Laura Agricola said her agency has pivoted toward physical activations.
“The digital environment may have gone, but the psychology that made it so powerful hasn’t,” she said.
“Social proof, FOMO and gamification don’t disappear just because a platform does. So we’re applying those mechanics where young people still are, in real life.
“We’re leaning harder into word of mouth to drive conversation, visibility, and shared experience, using formats like brand partnerships and physical activations to make messages travel and feel genuinely earned.”
Jaywing director of integrated growth Ed Raine said updates like Meta’s recent Andromeda rollout and TikTok’s long-used algorithmic models are making rigid demographic targeting less effective
“Performance is increasingly driven by automated targeting optimised around engagement, conversion signals and machine learning, rather than tightly defined audiences,” he said.
“The bigger implication is on the creative. As platforms rely more heavily on behavioural signals, the importance of strong, native, video-led creative continues to increase across all audience segments.”
Havas Red executive director Stuart Hood said brands targeting younger audiences will need to rethink their approach.
“Engagement metrics tied to younger teens will decline, forcing brands to rethink audience segmentation and creative approaches,” he said.
‘Logged-out consumption will rise, making discoverability and shareability more important than ever. We expect a stronger focus on age verification, brand safety, and building communities beyond platform logins.”
Yango general manager, product and operations, Robert Nagy said the agency is monitoring social media performance across all verticals as imperfect age verification could affect adults too.
“We’ve already been pushing clients to diversify their marketing mix and reduce reliance on these channels over the last few months,” he said.
“Testing and investing further in high-trust, contextually relevant environments like out-of-home, CTV, audio and gaming has allowed us to feel confident in pivoting away from the ‘standardised’ media mix.
“It can be difficult to wean off the ‘drug’ of what seems to be working until actually seeing the negative impacts, but by then it’s often too late.”