By Dr Aung Tun

 

Introduction

In an era where smartphones have become as commonplace as school textbooks, governments around the world are drawing a bold line: children should not have unrestricted access to so­cial media. On 10 December 2025, Australia made history as the first country to enforce a nationwide ban on social media for children under 16, requiring TikTok, In­stagram, Facebook, YouTube, Snapchat, and Reddit to block underage users — with fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.9 mil­lion) for non- compliance. That landmark decision triggered a global cascade, with at least 14 countries now implementing or drafting similar bans.

 

As Myanmar’s internet pen­etration deepens and adolescent mobile phone usage climbs, un­derstanding this global shift is not merely academic — it is a matter of public health, child safety, and national development.

 

The Global Picture: A Tidal Wave of Regulation

The scope of the global move­ment is striking. According to CIVICUS Lens (May 2026), four countries have already enforced bans, five more have passed laws awaiting implementation, and ap­proximately 40 additional nations are actively considering legisla­tion. Among the most notable developments:

 

• Australia (December 2025): The world’s first nationwide ban, blocking children under 16 from 10 major platforms.

• United Kingdom (2026): The UK government announced plans to ban social media for those under 16, stating plat­forms are “designed to be addictive” and “mak­ing children unhappy” while enabling bullying and harassment.

• France (January 2026): The National Assembly approved a ban for chil­dren under 15, driven by concerns over cyberbul­lying and mental health.

• Denmark (2026): Ban for under-15s backed by a cross-party coalition, with a digital age-verifi­cation app under devel­opment.

• Indonesia (March 2026): Plans to restrict access for users under 16 across YouTube, TikTok, Face­book, and Instagram.

• Greece: Ban for children under 15, effective 1 Jan­uary 2027.

• India: Karnataka became the first Indian state to ban social media for un­der-16s in March 2026.

 

The UK joins a growing coa­lition of democratic governments that have concluded voluntary platform measures are insuffi­cient to protect children from harm.

 

The European Union is also preparing the Digital Fairness Act, targeting addictive design practices across platforms. The European Parlia­m e n t has en­dorsed a res­olution c a l l i n g for an EU-wide ban on so­cial media for under-16s without parental consent, and a total ban for those under 13.

 

Health Risks: What the Evi­dence Shows

The legislative wave is grounded in an expanding body of medical and psy­cholog­ical re­search. Below are five of the m o s t well-doc­ument e d risks identi­fied in recent peer- reviewed lit­erature.

 

1. Depression and Anxiety

A 2025 scoping review in Chil­dren (Marano et al.) found con­sistent links between adolescent social media use and depression, anxiety, body image disturbance, and impaired emotion regulation. Girls are disproportionately af­fected — Pew Research (2025) found that 34 per cent of teen girls reported social media made them feel worse about their lives, ver­sus 20 per cent of boys.

 

2. Cyberbullying and Harmful Content Exposure

PMC research (2025) iden­tifies cyberbullying, unrealistic beauty standards, and exposure to harmful content as major platform risks. Cyberbullying is directly linked to self-harm and suicidal ideation in adolescents, with effects spilling into offline life — damaging academic per­formance, friendships, and long-term emotional health.

 

3. Addictive Behaviour and Problematic Use

A WHO Europe survey (Sep­tember 2024) of nearly 280,000 young people across 44 countries found that more than 1 in 10 ad­olescents (11 per cent) showed signs of problematic social media behaviour — up sharply from sev­en per cent in 2018. These chil­dren struggled to control their usage and experienced measur­able negative consequences in daily life.

 

4. Neurodevelopmental Risks

A large-scale Japanese study found that excessive screen time at age one correlated with in­creased ASD diagnoses by age three. Yuan et al. (2024) confirmed that heavy screen exposure alters neural development in areas gov­erning social cognition, language, and executive function — risks most acute during early childhood when the brain is most malleable.

 

5. Sleep Disruption and Aca­demic Decline

The AMA (2024) confirmed that evening social media use drives sleep deprivation, leading to impaired decision-making and emotional instability. Sustained poor sleep degrades concentra­tion, mood, and academic out­comes. France’s draft legislation specifically cited disrupted sleep patterns as a documented harm warranting regulatory action.

 

Voices From Both Sides of the Debate

Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Genera­tion (2024), commended the regulatory direction and praised Australia’s action, predicting other nations would follow — a prediction now proven correct. The UK govern­ment echoed this, calling for collective action to free children from plat­forms built to keep them hooked.

 

UNICEF cautioned, however, that age-related restrictions alone are in­sufficient — meaningful child safety online also requires stronger data protection laws, safer platform design, and digital literacy education. Amnesty Tech argued that the most effective protection comes from regulating platforms for all users, not merely ex­cluding children.

 

CIVICUS raised ad­ditional concerns that in countries with restrict­ed civic space, such bans could become tools for broader state control over online communica­tion.

 

Relevance for Myanmar

Myanmar’s digital landscape has undergone a dramatic transforma­tion over the past decade. Affordable smartphones and low-cost data plans have brought millions of young people online, with Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube becoming dominant sources of information, entertain­ment, and social inter­action for adolescents across urban and rural communities alike.

 

Yet protective frame­works — age verification tools, digital literacy cur­ricula, child-safe plat­form standards — remain largely underdeveloped. Awareness among par­ents about social media health risks is limited, and schools have yet to systematically incorpo­rate digital well-being into their programmes.

 

The international ex­perience — from Austral­ia’s pioneering law to the wave of legislation now sweeping Europe and Asia — offers concrete lessons for Myanmar policymakers. First, reg­ulation must be paired with education: children and parents alike need guidance on safe digital behaviours, not merely restrictions. Second, tech companies must be held accountable; the burden of child protection can­not fall solely on families. Third, any meaningful policy response should be grounded in local re­search into how Myan­mar’s children are actu­ally using social media and what specific harms they are experiencing in their own communities.

 

Conclusion

From Australia to the United Kingdom, from France to Indone­sia, governments are choosing to prioritize child well-being over platform convenience. The evidence of mental health harms, neurode­velopmental risks, cy­berbullying, and addic­tive platform design is no longer easy to dismiss — and world leaders are responding with binding legal action.

 

For Myanmar, this moment is both a warn­ing and an opportunity: a warning that the same harms are not unique to wealthy nations, and an opportunity to act before they become irreversi­ble for a generation still growing up.

 

Protecting the future generation requires more than internet access — it requires thoughtful stew­ardship of the digital en­vironments in which that generation is coming of age.

 

Top References

1. Marano, G, et al (2025). Connected but at Risk: Social Media Exposure and Psychiatric and Psy­chological Outcomes in Youth. Children, 12(10), 1322. https:// doi.org/10.3390/chil­dren12101322

2. Liu, T, et al (2024). The Impact of Social Media on Children’s Mental Health: A Systematic Scoping Review. Healthcare, 12(23), 2391. https:// d o i . o r g / 1 0 . 3 3 9 0 / healthcare12232391

3. World Health Or­ganization (WHO) Europe. (2024, Sep­tember 25). Teens, screens and mental health. https://www. who . int / e urope / news/item/25-09- 2024

4. Pew Research Cen­tre (2025, April 22). Teens, Social Media and Mental Health. h t t p s : / / w w w. p e ­wresearch.org/in­ternet/2025/04/22/ teens-social-media-and-mental-health/

5. CIVICUS Lens. (May 2026). Child social media bans: a grow­ing global problem. https://lens.civicus. org/child-social-me­dia-bans-a-grow­ing-global-problem/ (1197)