Meta's Global Influencer Playbook
According to a new Tech Transparency Project investigation, Meta flies parenting influencers to a waterfront venue overlooking Sydney Harbour. Once there, the company 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 exactly what happened when Meta staged the Sydney event in July 2025. This marketing push occurred five months before Australia’s landmark under-16 ban took effect.
The pattern repeats itself almost identically everywhere, per TTP’s findings. In Indonesia, for instance, actor Darius Sinathrya told his 1.8 million followers to try the safety features on the platform.
Escalating Global Regulations
Australia has enacted a social media ban on under-16s. Along with a higher age limit of 16, Australia is the first jurisdiction to deny an exemption for parental approval in a policy like this. This deliberate choice is making its laws the world's strictest.
Other nations may soon adopt similar measures, as the UK signalled in January it may follow Australia's lead. The EU is also facing pressure to act, with countries including France pushing for a social media ban for minors following Australia's restrictions for under-16s.
Leaders in other countries feel the same and have been knocking on doors for help, pointing to the EU, Fiji, Greece, and even Malta as examples. Critics argue that technology companies have had 15 to 20 years in this space to fix the issues of their own volition, and that current efforts are simply not enough.
Meta's Defense and Teen Accounts
The company introduced teen accounts to Instagram in 2024, saying it would add better protections for young people and allow more parental oversight. The feature was subsequently expanded to Facebook and Messenger in 2025.
Meta said it had rolled out Teen Accounts that "automatically protect teens and put parents in control - allowing them to block access to Instagram at night and cap daily screen time at just 15 minutes". Executives maintain that "Teen Accounts lead the industry because they provide automatic safety protections and straightforward parental controls".
Despite these features, researchers claimed in a recent study that Instagram's algorithm "incentivises children under-13 to perform risky sexualised behaviours for likes and views". In January 2024, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg was among tech bosses grilled in the US Senate over their safety policies. During the hearing, he apologised to a group of parents who said their children had been harmed by social media.
As global scrutiny intensifies, Meta continues to emphasize its cooperative stance with regulators. "We share the European Commission's commitment to providing teens with safe, positive online experiences and will continue to engage constructively with them," a Meta spokesperson said.