Six months after Australia became the first country to ban social media for under-16s, the experiment is providing sobering lessons for the 35 other nations now contemplating similar legislation. Viewed from Canberra, the policy has exposed the gulf between legislative intent and practical enforcement. Platforms have struggled to verify ages without invasive identity checks, while proxy accounts and shared devices allow many younger users to continue as before. Swedish ministers have taken note. A government inquiry is due to report in June, though Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson has already signalled a preference for a 15-year age threshold, positioning Stockholm alongside Copenhagen and London in a growing European push for statutory barriers.

Yet the rush to restrict access risks ignoring a more fundamental problem, argue critics from Zurich to Berlin. The Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung contends that age limits treat a symptom rather than the cause: the addictive architecture of platforms themselves. The real danger, the paper argues, lies not in who uses these networks but in how they are engineered to maximise engagement through endless scrolling, algorithmic amplification, and reward loops. Without redesigning these features, shifting the age boundary merely postpones exposure.

Teenagers themselves appear to share this scepticism. In Lausanne, participants in a mock trial organised by the Empowerment Foundation described their relationship with social media as addictive but resisted outright bans. One 19-year-old admitted that platforms “steal time” yet argued that prohibition infantilises young people and fails to teach digital resilience. Their testimony echoes a broader unease among adolescent voices often excluded from a debate dominated by politicians and experts.

The path forward may therefore require a more layered approach. Analysts in London note that the UK’s Online Safety Act already imposes a duty of care on platforms to mitigate systemic risks, a framework that addresses design rather than access alone. Meanwhile, the European Union’s Digital Services Act forces companies to assess the negative effects of their algorithms on minors. Viewed from this perspective, Australia’s ban looks less like a template and more like a first, imperfect step. The next phase of the global regulatory wave will likely need to combine age gates with structural obligations on the industry — a far harder task than passing a law.