Meta flies parenting influencers to a waterfront venue overlooking Sydney Harbour, hands out personalized scout badges and gourmet s’mores, then asks them to tell their followers that blanket bans on teen social media use are a bad idea. That is what happened, according to a new Tech Transparency Project (TTP) investigation, which found Meta staged the Sydney event in July 2025.
This event took place five months before Australia’s landmark under-16 ban took effect. The TTP report shows that this exact playbook has now spread to more than a dozen countries where governments have started weighing similar restrictions.
How the Influencer Playbook Operates
The pattern repeats itself almost identically everywhere, per TTP’s findings. Meta hosts polished branded events, often called Instagram Safety Camp or Screen Smart, then recruits actors, radio hosts, psychologists, and parenting influencers to promote its Teen Accounts as proof that bans are unnecessary.
In Indonesia, actor Darius Sinathrya told his 1.8 million followers to try the safety features. In India, actress Juhi Parmar reassured parents their teens were safer online, and in Brazil, actor Douglas Silva, with three million followers, did the same.
Global Regulatory Pressure
These influence campaigns arrive as lawmakers and parents continue to grapple with the negative mental health impact that such platforms are having on younger users. Jonathan Haidt, NYU professor and the author of "The Anxious Generation," is a major figure in this movement, advising that teenagers shouldn't have smartphones before the age of 14, and shouldn't access social media before 16. Adding to these concerns, the U.S. Surgeon General previously warned of a teen mental health crisis driven by social media platforms in 2023.
Australia officially banned social media apps for under 16s in December, prompting a mixed reaction. After a month, some teens reported being glad to be free of the distraction, while others simply found ways to bypass the law.
The Online Safety Amendment Act requires major platforms like Meta's Instagram, ByteDance's TikTok, Alphabet's YouTube, Elon Musk's X, and Reddit to implement strict age-verification measures. These methods must include options such as facial estimation through selfies, uploaded ID documents, or linked bank details. Companies face a fine of up to 49.5 million Australian dollars ($32 million) if they fail to take reasonable steps to comply.
Meta said in January that it removed 550,000 accounts believed to belong to under-16s across its Australian platforms. However, the tech giant urged the government to reconsider, warning that teens will try to find alternative ways to access apps without registered user safeguards. Meta also argued that age verification should extend to the app store, noting that teens use over 40 apps a week that fall completely outside the ban's scope.
Other countries are taking similar steps, as Spain became the first European country to officially introduce a ban after Australia's law came into effect. The U.K., Spain, and France are among some of the nations currently looking at legislation to prevent teens under 16 from being on social media. As Daisy Greenwell, co-founder of U.K.-based Smartphone Free Childhood, previously noted, "This is a global issue, and governments everywhere are under pressure to respond".
Meanwhile, the European Commission concluded in its preliminary investigations that Meta violated the EU's Digital Services Act. The commission found that the minimum age requirement of 13 for Instagram and Facebook is not adequately enforced. If these findings are confirmed in a final investigation, the commission can fine Meta up to 6% of its total worldwide annual turnover.