What the Australian social media ban could mean for your small business

Imagine, you’ve finally cracked it. Your Reels are reeling, your TikToks are… tiktoking, and your IG Stories have viral worthy engagement.

Then a headline drops: Australia has introduced a world-first “under-16 social media ban.” 

If you’re a UK small business owner, your first thought probably isn’t “Won’t somebody please think of the children?” (Simpsons reference, showing my age here). It’s more like: “Will this really matter to me?” 

And if you don’t sell to Australian teens you might be fine but there are already headlines that Keir Starmer is considering it as a real option for the UK as well. So there’s no better time to get ahead and start thinking how you could pivot your marketing plans if this does come into play. 

Let’s unpack what Australia’s social media ban actually does, what a UK version could look like, and how to keep your small business social media strategy going.

What is the Australian social media ban?

As of 10 December 2025, Australia’s under-16 social media ban requires certain platforms to take “reasonable steps” to stop under-16s having accounts. The responsibility is aimed at platforms, not parents or teenagers.

The list of impacted platforms is broad and includes big names (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Facebook and more). University of Sydney experts summarised it as a minimum-age ban with a big question mark hanging over age assurance / age verification and how cleanly it can be implemented in real life. 

It’s also worth noting, companies have been gearing up for enforcement. For example, Reuters reported Meta planned to block under-16 Australians from Instagram, Facebook and Threads, with significant potential fines for non-compliance.

Why UK small businesses should care about Australia’s social media ban

In the UK, the government hasn’t introduced a blanket ban, but it has said it’s keeping a close eye on Australia’s policy, and Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has publicly confirmed ministers are watching what happens next.

Meanwhile, the UK already has the Online Safety Act, which puts legal duties on platforms to protect users (including children) and has led to an increasing emphasis on age assurance. Ofcom has also been using its powers more actively, recent reporting covered fines and investigations around age checks (in the context of adult sites), which is a strong signal of enforcement direction: “prove you’re doing robust age checks, or else.” 

So when people say “rumours the UK might bring in an Australia-style social media ban,” the reality is: the UK is already moving towards stricter age-gating online, and Australia is giving policymakers a tempting case study. 

The small business impact: what would change for marketing if a social media ban came in?

Let’s be honest: most small businesses aren’t actively targeting under-16s. Year 10s are probably not your ICP. But the ripple effects can still make a big impact. 

1) Audience sizes (and targeting) could shift

If a chunk of younger users is pushed off certain platforms, or pushed into “walled garden” experiences, platform demographics can change. That affects:

• Who sees your content

• What kind of content gets boosted

• How ad targeting categories get defined

Even if your buyer is 35, their household isn’t a vacuum. Teens influence purchases, trends, and what parents talk about. If teen visibility changes, trend cycles change.

2) Influencer marketing gets more niche

Australia already saw concern from young entrepreneurs and creators about what an under-16 ban could mean for building audiences and running micro-businesses online.

In the UK, if the conversation moves toward harder age gates, brands may start asking:

• “Are your followers verifiably 18+?”

• “Will our campaign be restricted?”

• “Do we need creators who skew older?”

This is how you end up in a meeting where someone says, “We need a 42-year-old micro-influencer with a sourdough starter and strong opinions on shed lighting.” It’s not bad. It’s just different. 

3) Friction = fewer casual signups = higher cost per result

Age verification systems introduce friction. Friction reduces signups. Reduced signups can mean: higher ad costs, smaller retargeting pools, and more reliance on first-party data (email lists, customer databases, actual relationships, if you’re in Sales you’ll know all about those).

Australia’s policy is effectively forcing platforms to improve age assurance. In the UK, Ofcom guidance under the Online Safety Act also pushes services toward “highly effective age assurance” where needed. 

If platforms change onboarding flows, ad delivery and measurement often get “adjusted” too (which means your reporting may need to change).

If the UK did introduce an under-16 social media ban, what might it look like?

Nobody can say for sure, but we can make grounded guesses based on what’s already happening:

1. The UK government has said it’s monitoring Australia’s approach rather than announcing an immediate copy-paste ban.

2. The Online Safety Act already creates duties around protecting children and has put age assurance on the regulatory agenda.

So a plausible UK scenario is less “overnight ban” and more:

• Stronger enforcement of age assurance expectations

• Increased platform accountability

• Potentially tighter rules around youth-accessible features

Translation: more compliance, more friction, more change = the holy trinity of digital marketing headaches.

What should small businesses do now

This is where we stop doom-scrolling and start strategy-scrolling.

First: don’t build your business on a single platform. 

Second: if age gating expands, the successful businesses will be the ones that can create demand without relying on ultra-precise targeting.

That means doubling down on:

• Clear positioning (so the right people self-select)

• Searchable content (hello, SEO and Google)

• Owned audiences (email, communities, repeat customers)

Third: storytelling. Actual human voice. A brand that doesn’t sound like it was written by AI.

Which brings us neatly to our angle (the BlackCat Content angle): if you’d like your social media to feel less like “posting into the void” and more like a well-oiled machine that powers your business (even when the rules change), this is exactly where solid social strategy + content systems can help.

The AUS social media ban: Key takeaways 

Australia’s under-16 social media ban is live, and the UK is very obviously hovering nearby.. Whether or not a full UK social media ban ever materialises, the direction of travel is clear: more regulation, more age-gating, and more hoops for platforms (and brands) to jump through.

For small businesses, this isn’t a sign to abandon social media. But it is a sign to stop relying on luck, trends, and whatever the algorithm feels like doing that week.

A reminder of what you can do as a small business:

• Don’t rely on a single channel

• Don’t use ultra-specific targeting

• Do know how to turn attention into something more meaningful than a fleeting like

This is where having an actual strategy, not just “post three times a week and hope”, starts to matter.

At BlackCat Content, we spend a lot of time helping small businesses build social media that supports their business instead of stressing them out. That means content with personality, platforms chosen for a reason, and systems that still work even when the digital landscape decides to reinvent itself overnight.

So whether the UK follows Australia’s lead, tightens age verification, or simply continues making social media marketing a little more complicated every year,  your business doesn’t have to panic. It just has to be prepared. Chat to us today.