Denmark signals under-15 social media ban, mirroring Australia’s youth safety push
Denmark plans to restrict social media access for users under 15, following Australia’s recent move toward tighter youth safeguards. Details are still emerging, but the direction is clear: stronger age checks and more responsibility placed on platforms to keep younger teens off mainstream social apps. This would go beyond existing EU obligations under the Digital Services Act, which already limits targeted ads to minors and demands risk assessments, by drawing a hard age threshold for access. The key takeaway here: youth safety rules are consolidating around stricter age gates, and Denmark could accelerate a broader European shift.
What this means for creators and platforms: expect more friction at signup, wider rollout of age-assurance tools, and potential dampening of early-teen audience growth. Creators with teen-skewed communities in Denmark may see slower follower gains and should prioritize content and collaborations that resonate with 15+ cohorts. Worth noting for brands: reach and frequency forecasts for 13–14 audiences in Denmark (and, increasingly, Australia) will need revising. Plan for reduced inventory, higher acquisition costs in youth segments, and greater reliance on contextual or creator-led placements that skew older. Ad and platform teams should also pressure-test parental consent flows and age-verification partners for compliance readiness.
The bigger picture: governments are moving from content controls to access controls. While timelines, enforcement mechanisms, and penalties are not yet finalized, the logical consequence is more standardized age assurance across major apps-and fewer teens in the open social graph. What this means for creators and marketers is pragmatic: diversify channels that don’t hinge on under-15 audiences, build owned communities (email, SMS, memberships), and segment reporting to isolate teen impact. If you operate in multiple markets, assume under-16 access is increasingly volatile. The near-term play is compliance-first UX and audience rebalancing; the longer-term play is designing growth strategies that don’t depend on early-teen discovery.