OBJECTIVES: To examine the early effect of a world first national policy (Social Media Minimum Age Act 2024, which established a national minimum age of 16 years for holding accounts on designated social media platforms) on adolescent social media use, and to describe adolescent use of social media platforms subject to the Act, experience of age verification strategies, any efforts to circumvent them, and any perceived behavioural substitution or displacement. DESIGN: Observational study. SETTING: Community based study conducted across Australia. PARTICIPANTS: Australian adolescents aged between 12 and 16 years (from 80% to 89%). Time spent per day using social media was relatively stable between baseline and follow-up for 12-13 year olds and those aged >16 years but was lower at follow-up for those aged 14-15 years (from 3.40 to 3.13 units on an ordinal scale). In regression discontinuity design analyses, insufficient evidence was available to support a discontinuity in social media use on these primary outcomes (P≥0.60). CONCLUSIONS: Despite the intent of the Social Media Minimum Age Act 2024 to delay access to social media platforms and reduce the potential for online harms, little evidence was found of immediate substantive reductions in reported social media use by adolescents under 16 years. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry ACTRN12625001056482.
Barnes et al. (Wed,) studied this question.