Australian Youth Influencers Quit Social Media
â–Ľ Summary
– Carlee Jade Clements, a 15-year-old from Australia, uses social media extensively for both personal communication and her professional work as a content creator and model.
– Australia will implement a Social Media Minimum Age regulation on December 10, 2025, banning users under 16 from having accounts on major platforms.
– The law, passed in response to concerns about social media’s negative impact on adolescents, will penalize tech companies that allow underage access.
– Teen creators like Zoey Bender are adapting by adding adult co-managers to their accounts in an attempt to avoid deletion under the new rules.
– These young influencers anticipate negative consequences from the ban, including reduced engagement, lost followers, and a decline in the small revenue and free products they earn.
For many young Australians, the digital world is an integral part of daily life, a space for creativity, connection, and even a fledgling career. This reality is about to undergo a profound shift with the impending enforcement of Australia’s Social Media Minimum Age regulation. Set to take effect on December 10, 2025, this law will prohibit Australians under the age of 16 from holding social media accounts, a policy that is sending ripples through the country’s community of young influencers and content creators.
Carlee Jade Clements, a 15-year-old from Melbourne, typifies this generation. Her morning routine involves filming a “Get Ready With Me” video for TikTok, and she maintains a vibrant presence across multiple platforms. With over 37,000 Instagram followers, she shares product reviews and glimpses into her modeling work. The thought of the upcoming ban leaves her with a sense of dread. “It’s gonna be very weird and quiet and isolated,” she admits. “I’m going to feel like I’m cut off from the world.”
This legislative move comes amid growing global concern about the effects of social media on young people’s mental health and development. Australia is pioneering this aggressive regulatory approach, having passed the Social Media Minimum Age Bill in late 2024. The law will impose penalties on major platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube, if they fail to block access for users under 16. In anticipation, many of these companies have already begun locking accounts and implementing stricter age verification processes.
Faced with this deadline, teen creators are scrambling to adapt. Fourteen-year-old Zoey Bender, who enjoys posting creative advice videos to her 58,000 TikTok followers, has taken proactive steps. She and her father recently changed her account handle to include his name, hoping that by framing the account as adult-managed, it might survive the purge. “It’s my outlet,” Bender says of her content creation. This strategy is becoming common; Clements’ mother already manages her Instagram profile for similar reasons.
While these maneuvers may allow some professional accounts to persist, the landscape will undoubtedly change. As younger audiences are locked out, engagement is expected to plummet, leading to a potential loss of followers. For many, this translates to a tangible economic impact. Twelve-year-old Ava Jones, with 11,500 Instagram followers, estimates she earns between one and two thousand Australian dollars annually from brand partnerships, money she typically spends on clothes and cosmetics. “If that went away, I’d have to do more chores at home,” she notes, highlighting how even modest influencer income contributes to a sense of independence.
The new regulation represents a significant experiment in digital child protection, one that will fundamentally alter how an entire generation interacts with the online world. For young Australians who have built communities and small businesses on these platforms, December 2025 marks not just a policy change, but the end of an era.
(Source: Wired)
